Astounding Stories #80

When Nat Cullen inherits an abandoned mansion perched atop a Maine peak—boarded up for 75 years and rumored to be cursed—he and his wife Doris decide to spend the summer there despite the locals' warnings. But as strange occurrences mount—sleepwalking episodes, peculiar speech, and an eerie resemblance to Nat's swashbuckling ancestor, Commodore Nathaniel Cullen—it becomes clear that something far stranger than old floorboards and creaking timber is at work in the House on Cullen's Peak. The mystery deepens as Nat's behavior grows increasingly erratic and dangerous, leaving Doris desperate to understand what force has taken hold of her husband.

When Alan Foster's recurring dreams of a beautiful woman named Marla become inexplicably real—complete with a locket that materializes in his waking hands—Dr. Howard Jordan presents the extraordinary case at a Vienna convention on psychic phenomena. As the scholars listen in amazement, Professor Heinrich Dichter reveals he's been documenting an identical story from Marla Goren herself, a young woman living in Vienna who's been dreaming of meeting an American named Alan night after night. Now that the impossible connection has been uncovered, Jordan arranges for the two to finally meet in person, setting the stage for a reunion that defies the boundaries between dream and reality.

Dr. Orin Blakely, curator of the Institute of Psychic Research, examines the origins of one of folklore's most persistent superstitions: the belief that black cats bring bad luck. Through a series of historical tales—from 18th-century France during the Revolution to 1814 London and beyond—Blakely traces how accidents and misfortunes have been unfairly blamed on the creatures, revealing how coincidence, human carelessness, and fear have woven the superstition into popular belief. By the time he's done, it becomes clear that the real culprit isn't the cat at all, but our tendency to find patterns where none truly exist.