A man tries to pitch to Stan Lee the story of a blackmailer who becomes trapped within a mystic ruby as an agent of Fate to direct recently departed souls to their destination. Stan rejects the story as too outlandish even for Tales of Suspense and the man leaves the office. Outside, the man mutters to himself that his secret is safe since even if the blackmailer escapes the ruby no one will believe him and then he blinks out of existence.; A failed actor finds a spaceship with a dead pilot and uses it in an attempt to con the authorities. The ship is actually a decoy, and is retrieved by the aliens to get a human specimen for their zoo.; A doctor goes to the Middle East to treat the local people. He is attacked by bandits for curing the local sheikh, and chased into a desert mirage, which takes him to a utopian world. Only the worthy may enter, and the bandits chase the mirage through the desert until death.; An alien armada attempts to conquer Earth, but is driven off. One of the ships is damaged and forced to land on Earth, its pilot an outcast forever on the planet. The military soldiers are convinced they will capture the alien at any moment since it must be of monstrous appearance. As they walk past a nondescript gentlemen reading a newspaper, he says softly "It's a shame we just didn't land secretly and take over. These earthlings are so conceited that it would never occur to them that someone else would look just like them."