Astounding Stories #37

Jo stumbles upon a peculiar globe that seems to reflect real-world damage—until it shatters, triggering a distant, inexplicable explosion on a dead world. The strange connection between the object and far-off devastation hints at a mystery deeper than mere coincidence.

In "Reprieve!", former Nazi commandant Hans Schneider walks free after a shocking acquittal, thanks to the unnerving influence of his enigmatic lawyer, Kreugg. But his newfound liberty is shattered when Kreugg leads him back to the very concentration camp where his crimes were committed—now a haunting realm filled with the restless spirits of the dead.

In "The Nothing Man!", a boxing hopeful discovers a mysterious powder that grants him invisibility in the ring, rocketing him to middle-weight championship glory. But when he starts testing the limits of his newfound freedom—disregarding speed laws with the confidence that no cop can see him—he wakes up to find the police have built a jail around him, trapping him in plain sight.

In "He'll Go a Long Way," con man Boyce Haskell takes a gypsy’s cryptic fortune—“you’ll go a long way”—as a literal promise, using it to fuel a string of shady deals and a risky real estate scheme that lands his friend Bill in jail. When Bill’s furious wife chases him onto an empty subway train, Boyce’s twisted prophecy takes a terrifying, surreal turn as the rails give way and he’s lifted high above the Earth.

In "Danger Signal," a boy’s toy trains take on eerie life when a real-world crisis unfolds: his father, a train engineer, faces danger after the signalman collapses from a heart attack, leaving a warning light flickering on an unswitched rail. As the boy’s imagination blurs with reality, the line between play and peril begins to dissolve.

In *The Mountain Monster*, a reclusive scientist on a remote European mountaintop unleashes a creature he calls Adam, built from stolen minds and stitched together from the knowledge of kidnapped doctors. As Adam absorbs not just intellect but the terror his victims felt, his growing awareness turns inward—until he flees into the storm-lashed wilderness, seeking refuge on the highest peak. There, in a final, desperate climb, he meets a fate as sudden as it is inevitable.