The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mind Digger, by Winston Marks

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Title: The Mind Digger

Author: Winston Marks

Release Date: May 12, 2010 [EBook #32353]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Mind Digger

By Winston Marks

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Imagination Stories of
Science and Fantasy April 1958. Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: There was a reason why his scripts were smash hits--they had
realism. And why not? He was reliving every scene and emotion in them!]

It was really a pretty fair script, and it caught me at a moment when
every playwright worth his salt was playing in France, prostituting in
Hollywood or sulking in a slump. I needed a play badly, so I told Ellie
to get this unknown up to my office and have a contract ready.

When she announced him on the inter-com, my door banged open and a
youngster in blue-jeans, sweatshirt and a stubbly crew-cut popped in
like a carelessly aimed champagne cork.

I said, "I'm sorry, son, but I have an interview right now. Besides we
aren't casting yet. Come back in a couple of weeks."

His grin never faltered, being of the more durable kind that you find on
farms and west of the Rockies. His ragged sneakers padded across my
Persian, and I thought he was going to spring over my desk like a losing
tennis player.

"I'm your interview," he announced. "At least I'm Hillary Hardy, and
your girl just told me you'd see me."

"You--are Hillary Hardy?"

"In the morbid flesh," he said jamming out five enthusiastic fingers
that gulped my hand and jack-hammered until I broke his grip with a
Red-Cross life-saving hold.

"Spare the meat," I groaned. "I have to sign the contract, too."

"I did it! I did it! They said I was crazy, but I did it the first
time."

"Did what?"

"Sold the first play I wrote."

"This--is--your first work?"

"My very first