Astounding Stories #169

In "The Proper Spirit!", a pair of crooks exploit a boy for coin, but when they take shelter in a haunted house one stormy night, the boy catches the eye of a ghost who has his own idea of what it means to be a proper guardian. Written by an unknown hand and illustrated by an unknown artist, this chilling five-page tale turns a desperate scheme into something far stranger, as the spirit of the house steps in where the humans failed.

In "He Hides Among Us," a doctor’s decades-old experiment takes an unexpected turn when a young man’s sudden athletic prowess stirs suspicion. As his rival digs through medical records to expose the truth, the doctor confronts him with a startling revelation—his own forgotten past might hold the key to the mystery. The story unfolds with quiet tension, leaving the reader to wonder who truly belongs among us.

In "The First Man," a man arrives at an airport claiming to be the first man from Venus, his dramatic entrance drawing crowds and media—only to reveal it's all part of a movie promotion. But when his performance catches the attention of the wrong kind of people, his stunt takes a dangerous turn.

In "I Saw a Demon!", a scientist pushes the limits of his invention, using a device to capture sound on stone and testing it on a relic from an ancient temple of black arts. When the playback begins, his own voice echoes—but then a forgotten chant rises from the rock, and something far older stirs in the dark.