Free The Avenger 36 - Demon Island by Kenneth Robeson Page B

without his knowing. Get this thing started.”
    Inserting the key, Lupoff said, “How come that Avenger guy isn’t taking off after them?”
    “I don’t know,” said Bonner.
    “Maybe he’s got an angle we—”
    “Start the boat!”
    Lupoff started the boat.

    The Avenger held the glass capsule beneath Morrison’s nose. “Now you’re—”
    “What is that stuff? What are you going to do to me?”
    Benson’s powerful fingers snapped the glass and the truth gas was released. “You’ll answer my questions.”
    The fat man’s eyes glazed. “I’ll answer your questions.”
    “The man who took Heather Brail,” said the Avenger. “Who is he?”
    “Don Stark,” replied the drugged Morrison.
    “What are you doing on the island?”
    “Looking for the money.”
    “What money?”
    “Silva, the bootlegger, buried a million bucks here.”
    “Where?”
    “We don’t know the exact location, that’s what’s taken us so long.”
    The Avenger leaned closer to the fat man. “All right, now where will Stark take the girl?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “He’s heading back toward the coast. Where is he likely to go?”
    “He has a brother out beyond Pasadena. He might try to hole up there.”
    “Too far to go with the girl along. Some place closer to the ocean.”
    “The orange grove, perhaps.”
    “Where is that?”
    “A few miles from San Amaro,” replied Morrison. “It’s no longer an orange grove, actually. It went bust back in the thirties. Stark knew the people who used to run it. I think he’s been living in the abandoned ranch house there.”
    “Did he tell you about this place, the ranch house?”
    “No, he didn’t confide in me that much, even though we were partners,” said the fat man. “I found out about this from Tucker.”
    “Then he’s not likely to know that you’re aware of the place?”
    “Yes, that’s the case, I’m sure.”
    The Avenger turned away from the man. “It seems like a likely place to start looking.”
    Smitty rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get rolling.”
    “I want you and Nellie to stick here at the castle,” Benson told the giant. “Keep an eye on the Fiddler girl.”
    “I want to help find Heather,” said Cole.
    “Yes, I knew you would,” said the Avenger.
    The two men left the room side by side and hurried downstairs.

    The motor launch moved through the heavy fog. The mournful hoots of foghorns sounded in the distance.
    “I’d feel more at ease,” said Cole, “if we’d been able to persuade the good lieutenant to be a bit less impetuous. Having lived with friend Stark for several fun-filled days, I know he may well kill Heather.”
    “Bonner is a bit imperious, but I don’t think he’ll do anything to risk the girl’s life.”
    “Let us fervently hope so,” said Cole. “What was all that business about watching the Fiddler wench?”
    Benson concentrated on his steering of the launch for a moment. “It looks to me as though we have two separate problems to consider, Cole. Some of the trouble on Demon Island was due to your friends the gold hunters. But there’s something else going on.”
    “Something other-worldly?”
    The foghorns called again before the Avenger answered, “I think so.”
    “Putting a stop to the doings of spies and rascals has never presented too much of a problem, Richard,” said Cole. “Spirits and demons now . . . are we up to it?”
    “Yes,” answered the Avenger.

CHAPTER XX

Possession
    The voice returned to talk to her.
    Fanny Fiddler didn’t want to go to bed. She was determined to sit up in a chair beside her bed and read, drinking coffee from a thermos. Maybe, if she could stay awake most of the night . . .
    The voice returned to talk to her.
    Her room seemed suddenly blurred by fog, as though the night mist were seeping in from outside.
    And there was a shape, the figure of a girl, faintly formed in the swirling mist.
    Fanny felt very cold. She tried to rise up out of the chair. She