PEEBLES MOTORS

LIMITED
R. A. PEEBLES, Manager

CHRYSLER, PLYMOUTH, FARGO
Custom Built Buses for

all Purposes
BODY AND FENDER WORKS

PEEBLES MOTO
24 HOUR SERVICE
NAY Phone 119- NIGHT Phone 866

DUNLOP TIRES

NELSON - - B.C.

SAVOY HOTEL

GLENN HUXTABLE, Proprietor

Where the Guest Is King
Fully Licensed
Rooms with Bath or Shower at

Reasonable Rates
e
NELSON, B.C.

Phone 7 Phone 7

SEVEN-SEVEN TAXI

BOB RIESTERER JACK MORRISON
“You ride free if we fail to smile”
Day and Night Service Heated Sedans
Stand at Gelinas
Nelson, British Columbia

SOMERS’ MODERN

FUNERAL SERVICE
E. W. SOMERS, Proprietor

SEDAN AMBULANCE
CREMATORIUM

Day and Night Service Phone 252
702 Baker St. Nelson, B.C.

Branches at New Denver, Nakusp, Kaslo
and Trail

WILLIAMS’
TRANSFER

“THE MOVERS”
613 Ward Street Nelson, B. C.

“What can I say, Jean dear? I don’t
know any more. I don’t know anything
like as much as they think they know.
I tell you, I just found Dave gone when I
came up to the water hole.”

CONFESSION

Jean Protheroe flashed round on the offi-
cers. Her face was pale but her eyes had a
glow of fire. Her beautiful body was
tense as carved marble.

“Slim can’t explain,” she cried. “All
right!—if you must have the truth, I'll tell
it. Slim didn’t kill Dave. He doesn’t know
a thing about it.

“J KILLED DAVE.

“That makes you stare, doesn’t it? But

it is true for all that. Yes—and Id kill.

him again—and again for good measure.”
She glared defiantly from one to the other
of the officers.

“Oh, don’t stand there open-mouthed
like two codfish. I tell you I shot him.
What more do you want? Now—get your
man! Sure! Get somebody! Get anybody!
And this is one time you will get the right
one. I shot Dave. And if you want to
know why—take a look at this—!”

With a quick movement she tore the
thin sweater from her shoulder, then ripped
the white silken blouse from her back,
swinging her beautiful white body round
and displaying her bared back for their
inspection.

The mark of the bullet-hole, put through
her shoulder: in Stacey’s night-club four
years before, first caught the sergeant’s eye,
but other marks also arrested his attention.

Criss-crossed on her back were long red
weals, that caused young Greene to shiver
involuntarily and even made the hardened
Dalgleish stare in astonishment and grow-
ing horror.

“YVes—he did that. That's what Dave
Protheroe did to me. And-that-is-why-I-
killed-him. I vowed to myself that I would
—and I did.”

Slim Protheroe stood as dumbfounded as
were the two officers at this new turn of
events.

“Now let me tell you all of it,” Jean
Protheroe continued. “Dave had his sur-
mises of Slim and me—the same as you
two had. Oh, yes!—I could read your sus-
picions all that night you were here a

month ago. You didn’t have to voice them
to make me realize that.

“Dave was justified in his conclusions, but
he brought it on himself. He never loved
me. I never caused him a thrill in his
stagnant life. He cared for his dogs and
his traps more than he did for me. And
tell me—what is there for a woman up in
this country if there is no one to love her?

“Dave brought Slim up here. He left
us alone. He could see this coming and he
didn’t do anything to stop it. He couldn't
have stopped it if he had tried. He just
watched—and brooded—and_ watched.

“Last week he came back two days sooner
than he said he would—came back in the
middle of the night like a sneak—”

Slim Protheroe stepped forward.

“Stop Jean!” Stop!” he cried. “You don't
have to tell them all this. It won't help any.”

“Yes, it will, Slim,” she went on. “Dave
came back in the middle of the night and
he found what he expected to find.

“He went red-mad with words—words
—words. He didn’t want me—but nobody
else would get me. But he didn’t raise a
hand against Slim. If he had shown even
that much real interest, I might not have
minded, but he just went outside and stayed
away till morning, sulking and brooding.
When he came back, he ordered Slim to the
fishing nets two miles down the lake. Slim
didn’t want to go and leave me, for he knew
there would be more words.”

OCCIDENTAL HOTEL

H. WASSICK, Proprietor

A Comfortable, Medium-priced Hotel

LICENSED PREMISES
e
NELSON, BRITISH COLUMBIA

Travel in a 5-passenger Car to All Parts of
Nelson and District, Day or Night
HEATED SEDANS

B.B. TAX

Comfortable and Convenient
Ambulance Service

Phone 93
517 Ward Street Madden Hotel
NELSON, B.C.

THE SHOULDER STRAP