Page:The web (1919).djvu/155

 deserter was a deserter. Some were dangerous men, and some no more than yellow slackers. We could not in these pages give a great many instances of either type. One A. P. L. report, however, that comes from Birmingham, Alabama, is peculiar in that it gives details regarding several investigations and arrests of deserters.

One of the most remarkable cases handled by the Birmingham Division was that of Dan D of Tuscaloosa County, who deserted from the regular army of the United States on November 27, 1917, and was not captured until September 1, 1918. Information having been received by the Chief on the 23rd of August, 1918, that Dan was hiding near Reno Mines, he immediately ordered a number of his men under Special Agent M to go after the deserter. The trip was taken in automobiles on the afternoon of August 23, and through very heavy mist. Arriving at Reno Mines, some information was given the party as to the location of the man's home, which proved to be a four-room boxed house in front of which and about sixty feet away was a small frame barn about twenty by thirty feet, built of rough plank, with four horse stalls in the main building and some cow stalls in the lean-to shed.

A careful search of house and barn failed to show any signs of the missing man, his parents and sister denying any knowledge of his whereabouts. The mother said, "The last I hear'n of Dan was a letter from Long Island two months or more ago," and she remarked, "Of course, you'uns know he was home on a furlough last November." A request to produce the letter was met with the reply, "The chillun tore it up."

The search of the barn was again renewed by the men, and the loft was searched with the aid of a ladder from the outside. It was found to be filled with fodder, hay and grass, and prodding with poles and forks convinced the parties that there was no chance for any one to be hiding under same.

Very much mystified, and yet satisfied by the demeanor and sullen manner of the father, mother and sister that Dan was somewhere close, the Special Agent divided his men, leaving part of them to watch, while the others sought for outside information.