THE MEN RETURN

By JACK VANCE

Illustrated by ENGLE

Alpha caught a handful of air, a globe of blue liquid, a rock, kneaded them together....

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Infinity July 1957. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Only rarely will the Infinity-plus symbol—INFINITY's award of unusual merit—appear on an individual story. (For a typical example of the way it will be used, see "Tales of Tomorrow" elsewhere in this issue.) The Men Return is an exception by virtue of being one of the most unusual stories ever written. We do not guarantee that you will like it, but we are sure that you will either like it tremendously or hate it violently. And we're very anxious to learn your reactions!

The Relict came furtively down the crag, a shambling gaunt creature with tortured eyes. He moved in a series of quick dashes, using panels of dark air for concealment, running behind each passing shadow, at times crawling on all fours, head low to the ground. Arriving at the final low outcrop of rock, he halted and peered across the plain.

Far away rose low hills, blurring into the sky, which was mottled and sallow like poor milk-glass. The intervening plain spread like rotten velvet, black-green and wrinkled, streaked with ocher and rust. A fountain of liquid rock jetted high in the air, branched out into black coral. In the middle distance a family of gray objects evolved with a sense of purposeful destiny: spheres melted into pyramids, became domes, tufts of white spires, sky-piercing poles; then, as a final tour de force, tesseracts.

The Relict cared nothing for this; he needed food and out on the plain were plants. They would suffice in lieu of anything better. They grew in the ground, or sometimes on a floating lump of water, or surrounding a core of hard black gas. There were dank black flaps of leaf, clumps of haggard thorn, pale green bulbs, stalks with leaves and contorted flowers. There were no recognizable species, and the Relict had no means of knowing if the leaves and tendrils he had eaten yesterday would poison him today.

He tested the surface of the plain with his foot. The glassy surface 

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