The Project Gutenberg EBook of Monkey On His Back, by Charles V. De Vet

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Title: Monkey On His Back

Author: Charles V. De Vet

Release Date: September 10, 2008 [EBook #26569]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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| Transcriber's note. |
| |
| This story was published in _Galaxy_ magazine, June 1960. |
| Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the |
| U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

[Illustration]

By CHARLES V. DE VET

monkey on his back

Under the cloud of cast-off identities
lay the shape of another man--
was it himself?

Illustrated by DILLON

He was walking endlessly down a long, glass-walled corridor. Bright
sunlight slanted in through one wall, on the blue knapsack across his
shoulders. Who he was, and what he was doing here, was clouded. The
truth lurked in some corner of his consciousness, but it was not reached
by surface awareness.

The corridor opened at last into a large high-domed room, much like a
railway station or an air terminal. He walked straight ahead.

At the sight of him a man leaning negligently against a stone pillar, to
his right but within vision, straightened and barked an order to him,
"Halt!" He lengthened his stride but gave no other sign.

Two men hurried through a doorway of a small anteroom to his left,
calling to him. He turned away and began to run.

Shouts and the sound of charging feet came from behind him. He cut to
the right, running toward the escalator to the second floor. Another
pair of men were hurrying down, two steps at a stride. With no break i