Astounding Stories #10

The Mysterious Traveler witnesses a fraudulent swami preparing to swindle a desperate woman with false visions of her future, but when the charlatan peers into his crystal globe once more, he glimpses something genuinely terrifying—a real vision that sends him fleeing into the night. The Traveler's supernatural intervention reveals that sometimes the truth is far more powerful than any con artist's deception.

Mike Dane is left marooned on a remote planetoid by his treacherous partner Bull Brogan, who abandons him to claim their diamond fortune for himself. Desperate to survive and hungry for revenge, Dane fashions a distress signal and is eventually rescued—only to find Brogan has used his newfound wealth to shield himself behind guards and lies. When the Inter-Planetary Mining Authority offers Dane a prospecting job searching for the rare metal energium, he accepts, unaware that Brogan is watching his every move, waiting for another chance to exploit him.

Norbert Wimble has dreamed of becoming a doctor his whole life, but rejection from medical school forces him into the Army Medical Corps instead—where he eagerly tends to soldiers despite lacking a real degree. When a mysterious alien spacecraft crashes near his jungle position during World War II, Norbert rescues the non-human pilot and inadvertently receives an advanced extraterrestrial medical kit before the being vanishes. Captured by Japanese forces who mistake him for a real doctor, Norbert finds himself using the alien instruments to treat the enemy wounded, finally living out his lifelong calling in the most unexpected way imaginable.

On a New England beach, young Johnny Simms receives a puppy named Paint for his birthday, and the two become inseparable—until the dog heroically saves the boy from drowning. Years later, now a grown man with a son of his own, Johnny refuses to get a dog, still devoted to Paint's memory. When his own boy falls into the water, a mysterious four-legged rescuer with a distinctive spot appears, leaving Johnny and his wife to wonder whether some bonds transcend even death itself.

In Miller's Gap, Kansas, the townsfolk brutalize Simple Simon, the village outcast, as a cruel joke—but when his beloved dog dies and they mock his grief, something hardens in him. Unknown to anyone on Earth, alien observers from the planet Creta have discovered our world and deemed humanity too primitive to survive, planning total annihilation—until their landing party captures Simon and brings him to trial. Now, as the countdown to Earth's destruction begins, Simon finds himself the unwitting key to his entire world's fate.

In 1864 Paris, a young man named Paul Carvott is hypnotized in a studio experiment and becomes convinced he's his famous grand-uncle Jacques de Carvott—so convinced that he escapes his handlers, commandeers a horse, and flees the city. When authorities finally find him unconscious beneath a tree at dawn, they discover something impossible beside him: a treasure chest filled with jewels and gold, bearing his ancestor's name and matching the lost fortune Jacques swore would one day return to the Carvott family. Paul and his rescuers are left to wonder whether the hypnotic trance somehow bridged the gap between past and present, or if something far stranger has occurred.

Caton Durfield has spent his whole life bullied for being soft and refined, so when he's mistakenly selected as America's observer for a rocket voyage to the planet Antra, it seems like the ultimate humiliation—especially since his childhood tormentor Bat Jennison set the whole thing up as a prank. But when the rocket actually launches, Caton finds himself hurtling through space toward an alien world where his gentle nature and accidental heroism might just prove he's braver than anyone ever gave him credit for.

Captain Midnight, the masked alter ego of inventor Captain Albright, accepts a dangerous mission from the U.S. government: secure the release of Don Vereo, a champion of democracy imprisoned by the ruthless dictator Shido of Empyria. But when Midnight arrives, Shido pulls a cunning trap—abdicating and naming Midnight himself as the new dictator, leaving our hero to inherit a crumbling regime and face the very tyranny he despises. Forced to act decisively, Midnight must navigate rebellion, foreign invasion, and impossible choices to restore freedom to Empyria while staying true to his principles.

A college roommate finds herself increasingly unsettled by her mysterious friend Celeste—a strikingly beautiful student whose seemingly impossible athletic feats, uncanny ability to transform her appearance, and superhuman strength begin to defy explanation. When Celeste is found dead from a tiny gas leak that shouldn't have been fatal, and a break-in at the chemistry lab yields a fingerprint that's decidedly not human, the narrator must confront the disturbing truth about who—or what—her dearest friend really was. This science fiction tale weaves friendship, suspicion, and cosmic mystery into an 8-page puzzle that will leave you wondering what Celeste's true nature meant all along.

The wreckers of Dragon's End have made a dark living luring ships onto rocky shoals under cover of night, only to plunder their cargo year after year—but their greed finally catches the attention of something far more powerful than any mortal crew. When a final "ship" appears on the horizon, the townsmen rush to the beach for what they believe will be their greatest haul yet, only to discover the sea itself has grown tired of their evil ways. This is a tale of supernatural retribution where nature itself becomes the instrument of justice.