Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "Gallegher Plus" (as by Lewis Padgett) (novelette, humor, free)

Eccentric inventor, Galloway Gallegher, who's a genius only when totally drunk, has just sobered up - to find a curious looking machine of unfathomable purpose sitting in his room, & his back yard turned into a pit!

He will soon learn he'd collected payment from 3 different parties, including an agency of the US government, as part of a commission to build each of those parties something or the other! He also seems to have invested in a stock that has just crashed, against his broker's advise. He's no recollection of any of these, but the curious machine in his room must, of course, be the key to the problem.

We go through the now familiar crazy sequence of Gallegher stories unraveling the mystery...

Notes.

1. Title, Gallegher Plus, is used as the name of the genius subconscious of Gallegher!

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner & C L Moore's "The Proud Robot" (download): First & the best known of Gallegher stories. Also a science fiction classic.

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, November 1943.
Download full text (I haven't personally read this online copy).
Rating: A.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of Henry Kuttner, C L Moore (as by Lewis Padgett); fiction from 1940s.