Read Online The Avenger 36 - Demon Island by Kenneth Robeson - Free Book Online Page A

.38 revolver in his teeth, he went down the ladder.

    “What the hell’s going on up there?” said Stark, eyes on the stone ceiling of the room.
    “I’d say it’s either the Marines landing or the cavalry riding to the rescue,” said Cole.
    “That idiot Morrison. I told him not to shoot unless it was absolutely necessary.”
    “It may well be absolutely necessary now.”
    Stark tugged an automatic out of his belt. “We’ll see about that.” He gave most of his attention to the far doorway.
    Cole’s hands were still untied, though his legs were bound. He reached out and got hold of the oil lamp on his dinner table. “Saw a chap do this in a Frankie Daro film once,” he said to himself as he lifted up the lamp and threw it directly at Stark’s head.
    Smash!
    Stark suddenly opened up like a parasol, arms and legs going out. He growled and fell to his knees.
    Cole twisted on his chair, causing him to fall over to the left, chair and all.
    The lamp shattered on the floor, splashing flame.
    Cole’s chair broke and the ropes wound around his legs went slack. He hastened to shed them.
    Stark still had hold of his gun. Weaving, he got to his feet and fired the gun twice, not focusing on anything.
    Wham!
    A slug bit into the wall about a foot above Cole.
    He snaked along the floor, aiming for a pocket of darkness.
    The lamp flames were dancing toward the wooden table.
    “I’ll kill you now, wise guy, and no mistake!” promised Stark.
    “No, you won’t, buddy.” It was Smitty looming up in the doorway, the .38 in his fist.
    Stark snarled and fired straight at the giant.
    Smitty threw himself to the floor.
    Stark fired no more. He pivoted and ran for another dark corner of the room. The shadows swallowed him up.
    Smitty lifted himself watchfully. “Where’d he go?”
    “Yonder,” said Cole. “You still in one piece, old chum?”
    “Yeah, he didn’t hit me none. How about yourself?”
    “Can’t complain.”
    “What’s that bozo doing over there in the corner?”
    “Can’t quite see him.”
    The flames reached the wooden table and it commenced burning.
    “Ah, that’s better,” said Cole.
    The fire lit up the room. The corner Stark had ducked into was empty. He wasn’t in the room at all.
    “He took a powder,” observed Smitty, getting to his feet.
    “Either friend Stark’s been taking lessons from Blackstone the Magician or there’s some sort of secret way out,” said Cole. “Ah, pixie, is it truly you?”
    Little Nellie had appeared in the doorway, holding the flashlight. “You’re alive,” she said in a small voice.
    “Yes, despite being buried underground for several days.”
    The blonde hesitated for a few seconds, then ran across the stone floor and put her arms around the grinning Cole. “I’m glad.”
    Smitty frowned and went over for a closer look at the corner Stark had vanished from. Running his hand along the wall, he detected a very thin crack which ran from floor to ceiling. “Some kind of hidden door here all right,” he said. “I said there’s . . .” He turned to see what Cole and Nellie were up to. “Aw, mush.”

CHAPTER XVII

“Okay, Here’s What I Know”
    Dick Benson strode across the misty courtyard. “Terence,” he said.
    O’Malley had been standing near a stone wall, watching the foggy night forest. “Oh, hello, Benson.”
    “I’d like to have a talk with you.”
    “Sure, now’s as good a time as any,” said the young director. “Still nothing on Cole, huh?”
    “Last night,” said the Avenger, “I got a glimpse of the person who killed the man we found.”
    O’Malley kept his face expressionless. “I didn’t know that.”
    “It was a woman,” continued Benson. “I followed her to within a short distance of this mansion and lost her.”
    “That doesn’t sound like you, from what I’ve heard.”
    “I was knocked down, which slowed me up enough to let the woman get completely away.”
    “Knocked down? Who did that?”
    “There’s