Best Wishes to
THE SHOULDER STRAP

McVICER & SONS

Nanaimo, B.C.

PATRICIA HOTEL
Refreshment Parlour

Nanaimo, B. C.

FOR SPECIALIZED LUBRICATION
Bring Your Car to

MALASPINA
SUPER SERVICE

Imperial Oil Service Station
(Opposite Malaspina Hotel)
First Class Mechanical Repairs
Atlas Tires, Batteries “One Stop Service”
NANAIMO

Always a Welcome
at the

PLAZA HOTEL

Nanaimo, B.C.

IMPERIAL LAUNDRY

CITY CLEANERS & DYERS
NANAIMO, B.C.

Guaranteed Laundry and Dry Cleaning
Service

Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Courtenay Districts,
and Other Way Points

NOTIFY US OF CHANGE OF ADDRESS

“Tasty Food at Tempting Prices”

SHASTA CAFE

Open All Night Opp. Royal Bank

Nanaimo, B.C.

Page Twenty-six

How that man could take punishment!

Ross was ina predicament. He was afraid
to leave his prisoner and so weak that he
thought he might collapse at any minute.

SHoTs BRiInG HELP

With what strength he had left he hurled
his club at the glass in the door of the store
in the hope that someone would hear the
crash and come to the rescue.

Why none had heard the sound of the
shot was something that puzzled him. He
was not aware until much later that there
was more than one shot and that the prowler
had emptied the chambers of the revolver in
a vain attempt to kill him. His body was
seared by the flame of the pistol, but this,
also, he did not discover until later.

The shots had been heard.

McKenzie had heard the first shot, then
after a brief interval five more in quick suc-
cession, but fired inside a building they were
muffled and search as he would he could not
discover their source.

That they came from the postoffice was
the last possibility and he was making his

Weakly, the standing battered man sub-
mitted to being searched by McKenzie, who
was satisfied when he discovered a Provin-
cial Police badge in a pocket.

“Guess you are all right.
pened?” he said.

From a tangle of words coming through
the battered lips he made out that another
prowler was still in the store.

“Wait here and don’t move,” he ordered,
and set out to search the dark store.

Tt did not take him long to satisfy himself
that the second prowler had escaped by leap-
ing through a window, probably after the
first shot was fired.

What bape

STRUGGLE FOR LIFE

Returning to the front of the store he
lighted a large lamp there.

What a sight met his eyes. One man
dead, two battered, cut and bruised until
they looked like objects seen in a nightmare,
and blood everywhere.

Floors were slippery with the sanguine
fluid, while splotches of it were to be seen
high up on walls and over goods on counters

A portion of the main street of Union Bay, B.C. The store that became a
shambles is shown in the foreground. Adjoining it is the hotel where two
of the principals of the tragedy had temporary residence.

way to that building when the quiet was
shattered by the crash of breaking glass.

“It is the postoflice,” he muttered and
broke into a run, swinging a stable lantern
which he had carried with its flame burning
low.

Reaching the door of the building, he
noted the broken glass, and hurling himself
against the door he drove it in.

“Stick up your hands and stand still or
I'll shoot,” he bluffed, for he was not armed.
He made out the figure of a man standing
in the darkness just inside the door.

Raising his lantern as the figure appeared
to straighten and stand as if in surrender,
McKenzie gasped. The face he looked into
appeared to be anything but that of a human
being. It was battered, bruised and bloody.

The face gibbered at him with swollen
lips.

“Tam a police officer. This man killed my
pal and I got him,” were the words he heard.

Looking down, McKenzie saw that the
figure dragged at the end of a pair of hand-
cuffs another inhuman figure, just as bruised
and bloody. Farther along the floor lay an-
other figure, deathly still, in a huge pool of
blood.

and shelves. The floors were also littered by
objects and goods brought down by the men
in desperate struggle.

Ross had an opportunity to see himself
as McKenzie saw him for he staggered to-
ward a large, full-length mirror. What he
saw almost caused him to collapse.

Weakly, he told McKenzie something of
his story as that officer examined the pros
trate Westaway. Nothing could be done for
Westaway, he found, for a bullet had en-
tered in the region of the man’s heart and he
had bled frightfully. Only his pluck had
kept him going so long after he was hit.

Searching the premises, McKenzie ob-
tained bandages, water and antiseptics and
made shift to bind Ross’ wounds.

When this was done he noticed that the
prisoner was stirring and moaning. Quickly
he fettered him with his handcuffs.

“Can you stay with him while I get help?”
he queried.

“Chief Stephenson is at Cumberland, a
few miles away, on an inspection and if I
can get a telephone call through I will have
him over.”

Ross expressed willingness to remain and

THE SHOULDER STRAP