The Avenger 36 - Demon Island Read Online Free PDF Page B

the man. “You must be the spook doctor, huh?”
    “I am,” replied Benson in a slow, precise, and slightly nasal voice, “Dr. Montague Winters, the noted authority on matters occult. Your Mr. . . .” He paused to consult the note again. “Your Mr. Terence O’Malley has seen fit to hire me as a technical adviser on this epic.”
    “We can use you on more than the flick, Doc. This whole island’s crawling with spooks and—”
    “This young lady is my private secretary, Miss Emmy Lou Spaulding,” the Avenger continued. “The third member of our little group is Professor A.H. Smith, the renowned authority on psychic phenomena.”
    “Hi ya,” said Smitty, shifting the trunk from one shoulder to the other.
    “Now, if you’ll be so good as to lead us to Mr. O’Malley, I’ll commence earning my fee.”
    The young director was at work in the courtyard of the mansion. Cameras, sound equipment, and lights were scattered about, wires and cables squiggled here and there across the flagstones. A man in a shaggy gorilla costume, minus the gorilla head, was sitting in a canvas chair behind the head cameraman, going through a blue-covered script.
    “You don’t see him yet, Heather,” O’Malley was calling to the auburn-haired actress, who stood on the castle steps. “Hey, Hank, you’ve got to give me more fog. I want it creeping across the ground on little cat feet.”
    “Do my best, Terry,” said the man on the fog machine.
    “Klaus, we’re going to need a scrim on that baby spot.”
    “Don’t need it.”
    “Do it.”
    Grumble.
    “Now, Heather, you come down a step, maybe two. Pull that négligée a little tighter around you in front, we don’t want trouble in the sticks. You come down another step and then you hear it. Something breathing . . . but not something human.”
    “I resent that,” said the man in the gorilla suit.
    “Pipe down, Dave. You see him then, Heather. You don’t see him clear, but you see him. And you’re frightened. I don’t want some kind of Edgar Kennedy take, I don’t want even a scream. I want to look at your face and feel that you’re frightened out of your wits. Okay?”
    The pretty girl smiled faintly and nodded.
    “Sort of skinny, isn’t she?” whispered Nellie to Smitty.
    The giant said, “Oh, I don’t know. She’s pretty cute.”
    “Quiet, everybody quiet. We’re going for a take. Don’t forget, Heather, no screaming. Okay, Isaacson, you all set?”
    The cameraman said, “You bet.”
    “Okay. Roll ’em.”
    Heather moved down the stairs, one slender hand held to her breast. Fog encircled her. She suddenly seemed to sense something. She turned slowly and looked full into Isaacson’s big camera, which was rolling silently toward her.
    “Perfect!” exclaimed O’Malley. “Cut. I’ll buy that one.”
    “A beaut,” agreed Isaacson.
    “Get all the way into your trick suit, Dave. I want to get a couple of shots of you lurking. We’ll take five and pick up at scene forty-six.”
    “I played on Broadway with Lunt and Fontanne,” remarked Dave as a makeup man helped him into the gorilla head. “Brooks Atkinson called me a bright—” The gorilla head muffled the remainder of the sentence.
    O’Malley had noted the arrival of the Avenger. He hurried now around equipment and over cables. “Good to see you again, Mr.—”
    “Dr. Montague Winters,” said Benson, holding out his hand.
    “Oh, yeah, to be sure. Dr. Winters. We’re honored to have you working on the picture. I hope you’ll be pleased with what you see.”
    “I make no artistic judgments,” said Benson in the nasal voice he was using. “I am merely a journeyman for hire . . . Any word on Cole?”
    They were out of earshot of the cast and crew. O’Malley shook his head. “Still not a trace. I’ve had two men prowling the damn island off and on since I called you yesterday morning. Cole doesn’t seem to be here.”
    Nellie said, “What about this girl he was searching for? Has she