A.E.JUKES & CO. Members: Vancouver Stock Exchange Montreal Stock Exchange Montreal Curb Exchange 840 W. Hastings St. Vancouver, B. C. Phone PAcific 5311 THE VANCOUVER TOBACCO COMPANY Lid. Wholesale Tobacconists Cigars, Cigarettes, Tobaccos, Gum, Candy, Pipes, Smokers’ Sundries SUPERIOR SERVICE Phone PAcific 6374 59-61-63-65 Pender St. W., Vancouver, B.C. Subscribe to The Shoulder Strap Compliments of 139 EAST HASTINGS STREET Vancouver, B.C. * Company Limited PRINTERS — STATIONERS Office Furniture Dealers Labour-saving Office Machines 830 W.Pender St. Vancouver,B.C. The Willson Stationery Compliments of Army and Navy Veterans in Canada KINGSWAY UNIT 100 President GEORGE C. SANFORD Vancouver, B. C. R. LANGDON “T did.” “Well, just for the sake of an argument let’s assume that the chest wound would not have caused instant death...” “But,” rasped the coroner impatiently, “it would.” “Exactly ... exactly. But just hear what I've got to say. If death hadn’t been in- stantaneous there’d have been an internal hemorrhage—isn’t that so?” “Yes, yes... but why?” The coroner was exasperated. _ “And,” continued Duffus blandly, “if death had been instantaneous there would be no blood in the chest cavity?” “That’s right,” rasped the coroner, near the end of his patience. “Then,” ordered Duffus, “I want an autopsy performed on Lycheluk’s body im- mediately. I want to be certain Lycheluk didn’t commit suicide before I go any further.” “But...” Prime had listened with grow- ing impatience to the inquisition of the coroner, “how in blazes could Lycheluk commit suicide? In that case the whole six of them could have committed suicide which, pardon me saying so, sir, seems damned unlikely.” A moment later the coroner called gruffly from an adjoining room. Scalpel in hand he stood over John Lycheluk’s scarred and blackened corpse. Slowly he inserted it. The chest cavity was full of blood! “Now,” Duffus turned exultantly upon the doctor, “you'll have to admit that this man lived for some time after that chest wound had been inflicted?” “Yes,” came the reluctant admission, “but what does that signify . . . nothing!” “It proves,” the Inspector’s words fell like lead, “that we've got the murderer at last:” The doctor and the sergeant were gazing at Duffus, wide-eyed. : “It means,” Duffus continued with con- viction, “that John Lycheluk’s the murderer. The whole thing is clear as a bell. Maybe he just went haywire; maybe he’d had trouble with Ledur and Belek and things were coming to a head. After leaving Min- oska at the forks of the trail he hurried home, slaughtered the whole unsuspecting family in a riot of carnage before they had time to defend themselves; set the fires, 2559 Cambie Street Telephone FA irmont-0221 Nunn & Thomson Directors of Funeral Service Vancouver, B.C. then shot himself in the heart. There hi was—in the Skelov home with the co, of his victims scattered about in the lurid light of the flames that seemed doomed tos overtake him before he attained the swift death he sought by his own hand. Ing moment he would be caught in those yellow / tongues of curling flame. With a lag aul preme effort of will he placed the mur). of the rifle to his head and fumbled fo; the trigger. See... ” Duffus wiped the blak. | ened forehead with a moistened cloth, “ook 3 closely and you'll see powder burns jp, grained in the flesh around the wound!" Word of the Mounted Police discovery : caused even the stolid population of Yay ; to laugh. The hand of a dead man haj struck, phantom-like, at his victims; fred § their barns and homes, and retired to the | scene of the massacre so that he, too, could . be engulfed in the obliterating flames! ie was like a Wagnerian opera. But the new line of investigation pursued. by the Inspector gathered swift fruit, 4. jacket, identified as John Lycheluk’s, ya discovered in John Skelov’s cabin. The olf. man recalled picking it up near the ruins of Ledur’s farm, bringing it home, and for. getting all about it. — “Look at this,” from the pocket the ly spector hauled a handful of .32 calibre center-fire Winchester cartridges, identicd with those used in the mass slaughter. A broken cardboard container revealed a saks slip that sent him and Prime hot-foot toi _ nearby general store. Not only did the storekeeper recall selling the rifle but he produced a carbon copy of the sales slip for both the rifle and the cartridges. Each bor Lycheluk’s name. Dated only a week ke fore, they told of premeditated murder. As realization dawned on the befuddled res dents of Yavo that the Mounties had actu ally solved the midnight massacre, sneering smiles changed to whispered asides of the clandestine love-making of the dead Loth ario who'd carried so many with him to the grave. “What I can’t figure out,” Staff Sergt. Prime turned to the Inspector with a puzzled frown as they headed back to head quarters after freeing Mike, “is how you picked on the killer when we’d passed him up sO many times.” “The case against Minoska was to ANGLO-BRITISH COLUMBIA PACKING CO. LTD. H. Bell-Irving & Co. Ltd., Agents VANCOUVER, B. CG. CANNED SALMON @ Established 1891 Page Fifty-two THE SHOULDER STRAP