The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Second Voice, by Mann Rubin

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Title: The Second Voice

Author: Mann Rubin

Release Date: September 5, 2009 [EBook #29910]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECOND VOICE ***

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_We proudly enter a new name in the science-fiction sweepstakes.
This is Mr. Rubin's initial appearance in the field. His literary
efforts to date add up quite handsomely, we think. QUOTE. I have
sold to the TV show, TALES OF TOMORROW and two literary quarterlies
have published my fiction. Last year I won the Stephen Vincent Benet
Award for my one-act plays produced at Stanford University. UNQUOTE.
The reading pleasure is yours._

the
second
voice

_by ... Mann Rubin_

Spud, world-famous dummy, talks
to Mars with surprising results.

Crawford completed the rehearsal in less than an hour. He listened to
the orchestra run through its selections, okayed the song the guest
vocalist had chosen, then finished up with a long dialogue between Spud
and himself. When it was over he checked timing with the program
director, made a few script changes and conferred briefly with a Special
Service Officer about the number of troops the auditorium could hold.
Everything was running smoothly. It was going to be a neat,
action-packed show.

Backstage he looked at his watch. He had almost two hours before the
regular show began and he was restless. Two hours at Harlow Field could
seem like two years. Guards and restrictions all over the place.

Harlow Field was the largest experimental base in the world, a veritable
garden of atoms, the proving grounds for every secret weapon ever
imagined. The security and the tight regulations gave Crawford the
jitters on each of his visits.

He smoked a cigarette and tried making small talk with some of the
soldiers on backstage detail. He posed for a picture and gave an
interview to a reporter from an army newspaper, then excused himself and
went to his dressing room with Spud propped in the c