Canada at War: BRITISH COLUMBIA: At Deadman’s Creek

The timbered wilderness of north-central British Columbia is a rugged, snow-swept country, where frontiersmen fight for life—and often lose.

Last week, near their cabin on Deadman’s Creek, the bodies of two trapper-partners, Eugene Messmer, 33, and Hans Pfeuffer, 43, were found, lying in slushy surface ice. Both had been shot in the back. Guns, supplies and an estimated $4,000 worth of furs were missing.

Up from Prince George, B.C. flew provincial police, to begin a vigil at outpost fur sales. Soon an Indian tried to sell 16 marten pelts which had been cured not as Indians cure them, shapeless and wrinkled, but the white man’s way, long and smooth. Police arrested 22-year-old Alex Prince, charged him with the double murder.