Written by Mr. Mouseburger 24th Mar 2006

Kindly submitted by Mr Briggs inc.

Inspector Trout discovers that Dr. Phibes (q.v.) is alive and well, but by this point is too late to stop Phibes from claiming his fifth victim on his "nine eternities in DOOM" agenda. This victim is Dr. Hedgepath who, while being chauffeured around, notices a beautiful damsel in distress at the side of the road having car trouble. In reality, the damsel is Phibes' beautiful henchwoman, Vulnavia (q.v.), and this is simply the set-up for the next execution.

Hedgepath tells his driver to stop to offer assistance, and when the driver stops, he is despatched with Phibes' vulcan death chop.

The Abominable Doctor then gets out a large, chrome gadget and places it in Hedgepath's car.

[Hedgepath does absolutely nothing to query why some mad old man has just intruded into his personal space, but this is fairly typical of Phibes' victims]

Cut to Inspector Trout finding Hedgepath's car alongside the road with a layer of frost covering the window, and when he gets the door open, he finds Hedgepath inside and the machine has frozen him to death. Trout can't resist activating the device which reveals it sprays hail out, directly at Hedgepath's face.

Quite why Hedgepath didn't just move out of the way of the hail and then escape the car isn't explained, but if you read the rest of the Phibes killings you will see that few of his victims possesses much survival instinct.

Meanwhile, back at his Art Deco lair, Phibes places the Hebrew symbol for hail around the neck of a wax bust of Hedgepath and melts it with a blowtorch.