shorter than Bullock, yet the driver in- sisted he only reached to his shoulders. That Haydon had picked the pair up convinced Hetherington others might have seen them, too. Inquiries quickly bore this out. Two ranchers recalled them, describing one as tall and slim, the other as short, thick-shouldered, with sandy hair. The pretty daughter of a Ponoka rancher not only recalled seeing them in a Ponoka store but remembered them stopping later at her home and enquiring the way to Asker. The tall one had left his zither at the store, remarking he'd get it later—which implied he intended remaining some time in the district, pre- sumably at Asker since he’d mentioned the place. Again the deseription of the younger man was disappointing. The Black & White Cabs Insured Carriers - 24-Hour Service 7771 Phones 266 Westview. B.C. Cranberry, B.C. Powell River Stages Lid. Daily Service to Cranberry and Edgehill, Westview and Grief Point Westview B.C. PANDA COFFEE SHOPPE FOUNTAIN CUISINE—AFTERNOON TEAS “TRY OUR HAMBURGER AND COFFEE” Cleanliness and Courteous Service WESTVIEW B.C. Powell River STEAM LAUNDRY Phone 3391 FINISHED SERVICE—NEAR READY DOZEN FLAT RATE Earl Jacobson Don Luther POWELL RIVER MOTORS LIMITED General Motors Sales and Service Phone 7701 POWELL RIVER, B.C. Page Forty-eight girl, too, insisted he reached only to the tall one’s shoulders. The short one, she figured, was eighten or twenty. The one with the sombrero around thirty. “Damned if I can figure this out,” Hetherington scowled at his companion. “The dead man’s certainly not the tall one, and he couldn’t be the short one. Yet they are the only two strangers who passed through here around the time the killing must have taken place and . . . they were talking of Wyoming and Asker. Everyone gives them different ages but they all agree that one was short. Still I’ve a doggone big hunch that corpse we found was Bud’s partner.” “Tye heard of dead men growing a beard,” exclaimed Firth impatiently, “but I’m damned if I ever heard of a corpse growing four inches in his grave. My hunch is we’ve missed the boat.” “Come on,’ Hetherington told him, “our first job’s to check up on the Bul- locks.” “Sure, Bud dropped in for a visit around the end of April,” the Bullocks told the Constable. “We'd all gone to bed when the dogs commenced to bark. Jimmy got up and went out and there was Bud. We'd no idea he was coming.” “Was he alone?” Hetherington asked quietly. “Sure,” Jimmy answered promptly. “Said he'd been travelling with another guy who'd gone to his place at Red Deer Lake.” Red Deer Lake! The Constable started. - The sandy-haired man with the blind pinto—he answered perfectly to the des- cription of Bud’s companion, even to his short stature. Why then had Bud lied and denied all knowledge of any stranger ? Another trail seemed suddenly to be melt- ing into thin air. Bud, the family informed him, had stopped for only a short visit. After staying over the week-end he'd left for British Columbia to obtain tunnelling work on railroad construction, similar to the kind he’d been doing in the States. Tunnelling work! Hetherington’s mind swung to the greasy cap found near the grave of the headless man, and the machinist’s tool in the corpse’s pocket. Could the dead man have been working at tunnelling with Bud? Suddenly Hetherington was rewarded with another clue. Back at Wetaskiwin he learned that a letter with a Kalamazoo post-mark had been delivered to the Bul- locks. Hurrying to the post office he arranged to intercept any reply. Next day the Ponoka postmaster phoned that a letter, addressed to B. K. Bullock in British Columbia, had passed through a few days earlier. The trail was warming up at last. It became suddenly hotter when the Asker postmaster sprung a fresh surprise. A letter from Kalama- zoo, addressed to “The Sheriff” at Asker, was promptly turned over to the police. It was from a legal firm at Pontiac, Michigan, near Kalamazoo, wishing to serve a subpoena on Charles B. Bullock, formerly of the latter place. So Kalamazoo had suddenly projected itself into the picture! Casting aside all former fears, Hetherington wrote a con- fidential letter to the Sheriff at Kalama- zoo, asking that a secret investigation be made into the whereabouts of one Bud Bullock, and inquiring for information concerning L. C. Stainer or Stamer. The answer burst like a charge of dynamite, sending the Constable catapult- ing from his seat with anger. Boxed in HOME FURNISHINGS PH. 203 |e FURNITURE, ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES FLOOR COVERINGS, DRAPERIES RANGES, CHINA Serving the Powell River District at Westview, B.C. " City Transfer (1945) Lid. | EXPERT PIANO MOVING COAL - STORAGE - MOVING HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE CRATED AND DELIVERED ANYWHERE IN B.C. No Job Too Big or Too Small Phone 3141 Cranberry Lake, B. C. Cranberry Hardware TOM AHOLA & SONS General Hardware, Paint, Varnish and Wallpaper, Crockery, Electric Appliances, Stoves, Ranges and Oil Burners Phone 259 Cranberry Lake, Powell River, B.C. | | | | | j | | | | Guaranteed Workmanship _ Cranherry Sash & Doors | Sash and Doors, Cupboards Screen Doors and Windows Phone 8311 Cranberry Lake, B. C. Phone 8211 EVELYN & EMMS DRY GOODS AND SHOES MEN’S, WOMEN'S, CHILDREN’S AND BABIES’ WEAR Household Linens, Novelties and Toys WESTVIEW, B.C. THE SHOULDER STRAP