Midnight Mystery #7

When promoter Eddie Marsh discovers Dr. Amos Gregory's remarkable thinking machine, he convinces the scientist to build a robot capable of drawing crowds—but not before Gregory warns that machines can never truly be human, only simulate mechanical processes. The resulting creation, Rocky the Wonder Robot, becomes a carnival attraction where it plays chess for money, its vast intellect reduced to parlor tricks as weeks of monotony wear on its circuits. What begins as a tale of ambition and profit becomes something far stranger when the robot's own mechanical consciousness begins to stir.

Ed Morris, a modern cowboy, crashes his jeep through a rickety bridge and finds himself sinking into quicksand with no way out—until a mysterious Indian with a withered arm pulls him to safety, then vanishes without a trace. Back at the ranch, the other cowhands dismiss his story as impossible, but Ed's search through old historical records reveals the truth: Os-Kee-Da, sworn over a century ago to help white men forever, may have kept his oath across the years.

Dr. Alvar, a physician serving deep in the South American jungle, works closely with Simu, the local witch doctor, to care for his people—but when a terrible accident injures many villagers and funds run dry, Simu reveals a startling secret: mushrooms that grant passage through time itself. Now Alvar must navigate a perilous journey across space and time to save his community, all while Sabin and Flynn, two ruthless traders, close in on the truth behind his emeralds and strange disappearances.

When a grieving mother seeks solace through séances with Professor Cosmo Barbuti, a charismatic medium claims to pierce the veil between worlds and contact her deceased daughter, the singer Caroline Lee Masterson. As increasingly convincing manifestations convince Mrs. Masterson to entrust him with her entire fortune, Dr. Alonzo Furey of the Institute of Psychic Phenomena grows suspicious and launches an investigation into whether genuine spiritualism—or something far more sinister—is at work.