B.C. INTERIOR SAWMILLS LTD.

Suppliers of LUMBER - BOX SHOOK - WOOD - SAWDUST

PHONE 760-L-1

CANADA

KAMLOOPS, B.C.

Woolams brought his team to a halt
and shouldered through the door.
Not a soul was to be seen. On the
fireless stove sat a pot half-filled with
frozen porridge. Empty breakfast
dishes lay scattered about the table.
Over the ice-locked bay hung a
brooding silence pregnant with dis-
aster. Woolams swung about at the
soft pad, pad of Silas’ mukluks.
“Come quick!” gulped the interpre-
ter. “Me see’um somet’ing on de ice.
Dogs dey plenty scare!”

The Mountie’s Last Trail

Following the direction of Silas’
outstretched finger Woolams espied
what appeared to be a fallen baribou
lying midway twix trading post and
barracks. Padding swiftly across the
the intervening distance they stood
beside it.

Lying outstretched on his face, his
fur-clad arms flung out on the ice,
was the frozen body of Otto Binder,
shot clean through the heart! Leaving
the dead trader they ran breathlessly

D. R. BUTT & SONS

Wholesale
Tobaccos and ‘Confectionery

Kamloops and Kelowna
British Columbia

Island Building Supplies
LTD.

Everything in Quality Building Supplies
Hexagon Shingles - Windows - Sheating
Wallboard - Insulation - Bricks - Tile

Doors -

Phone 127

Paints

742 Victoria Street
KAMLOOPS, B.C.

742 Lorne Street

Mounted Police Barracks at Tree River,
scene of the final tragedy.

to the Mounted Police shack. Fear-
fully Woolams swung open the door
and stepped within. Save for the
biting cold all seemed in order. Then,
as his eyes swung to the bunk, he
blanched. There lay Bill Doak, his
sightless eyes staring straight towards
him, his frozen features moulded in
a grey mask of agony. Bill Doak, the
genial, fun-loving Mountie, friend
of every trapper, trader, riverman
and roughneck from the end of steel
to the Rockies, had gone on his last
long trail!

A hasty examination showed
where the bullet had struck Doak’s
thigh-bone and been deflected into
the body, causing a mortal wound.
Near the stove lay an empty 30/30
shell, while beneath the broken
windowpane, overlooking the spot
where Binder had been shot to death
on his way over to the barracks,
gleamed another empty shell. Out-
side, the door of the lean-to store-

PUNJAB LUMBER CO. LTD.

LUMBER - ROUGH PLANKING - TIMBERS
Phones: 1308-L-1 - 1677-R-2. Office: 1681-R-2

KAMLOOPS LUMBER CO. (1948) LTD.

Manufacturers of PINE, FIR and SPRUCE
RETAIL LUMBER and BUILDING SUPPLIES
General Office 316 - Retail Yard 332

house was ajar and one of the 30/30
rifles and some cartridges taken
from the prisoners was gone.

Four and a half months later the
bleak outpost of Herschel Island
was thrown into a tumult of excite-
ment as Eskimos rushed to the
barracks to report that the Fort Mc-
Pherson was approaching from the
east.

As the little vessel rounded the
headland and chugged into the cove
a strange sensation gripped the on-
lookers. There was an omnious
silence as the ship drew closer. An-
swering cries of welcome seemed half-
hearted. Suddenly the question went
the rounds: “Where was Bill Doak?”
Had anyone noticed the _ genial
Mountie? It wasn’t like the boisterous
Bill to be backward in shouting a
greeting to old trail-companions and
comrades!

Gloom at the Polar Post
As the gangplank clattered on the

Ford - Monarch

DEARBORN MOTORS
LTD.
SALES SERVICE

Kamloops

PARTS
B.C.

SILVER GRILL
Good Food Well Prepared

is the Only Kind We Serve
THE TASTE WILL TELL

Phone 234 KAMLOOPS, B.C.

P.O. Box 253, KAMLOOPS, B.C.

KAMLOOPS, B.C.

TWENTY-SIXTH EDITION

Page Thirty-five