The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-10-05

We were seated in the office of the
 mess hall and MT. Wester was about to read us the story. "The Hermit of Cloudy Ridge" when a scout jumped to his feet and stated that it was the day before the big Indian hunt and that the Indians hadn't been chosen as yet. By golly. had forgotten that | thing Without delay MT. Wester ap- pointed four boys, John Mills, Hugh Morgan. owen Cowart and myself.
 sailor" Eddens was assigned to go with us.
 MT. Wester explained to us all how 1t was to be carried out. explaining that we were to hide within mile of the camp, and to keep fire that could be seen on three sides. Also to keep three boys and Sailor not
 more than 20 feet from the fire. After this had been explained. he went on with his reading of the story. l was seated on the cot next to Eddie Glenn and Hugh Morgan. A minute and half after MT. Wester had begun read ing f7saw John come running through the ooor He first whispered some thing to Owen. They approached us. saying:
 Sailor is in the kitchen and wishes to speak to both of you"
 When we reached the kitchen
 Sailor called us close to him. Now you fellows get your blankets and things and come to my tent ana sleep with me. We'll arise at 2:30 in the morning and slip away from camp.
 and then the falling dew will cover our tracks" he told us while we were out ot hearing from the others. That night we didn't sit up, but went straight to our tents and gath cred our blankets and provisions. Throwing our hunks in Sailors tent, we fell fast asleep. I was awakened next morning by Owen telling me that it was 4:30 and that we were delayed by q rain. Putting our clothes on in a hurry and gathering our knapsacks, we started towards the south. Sailor told us to talk about Carmichaeis. which was in the direction we were going. Passing by the line of tents, finally reaching Tent 4. which was occupied by Waffle Huck and Eddie Glenn, two boys who had planned to follow us if possible. we asked Sailor" if we could get water at Carmichaels Waffle heard me and jumped to his feet. As we passed through a grove of shady trees, l turned back to see Wal lie standing halfway out of his tent We then took the road towards the spring, and after arriving there we "back- tracked' 50 feet. throwing an ax to the side of the path. we stepped on this and thus hoped as far away as possible from the path. As the ground was very damp from the rain
 of the previous night. and not wish ing to show oar tracks. we therefore took the old Indian trail. leading to the
 Indian spring. After walking at least
 half a mile we were forced to leave
 the woods in order to cross the creek.
 We had about 400 yards to walk in
 the sand. leaving our tracks very
 plainly. In order to cross the creek
 we had to light carbide lamp, taking
 the ax to open the carbide can. Hugh
 carelesslv left the ax where he had
 opened the can. not discovering the
 fact until we had reacned the spring.
 Sailor sent Hugh back after it. which.
 of course. left moro tracks for the
 enemy to follow
 SCOUTING
 Sailor sent the remaining three of
 us in different directions. to see if we
 could find good camping spot, mak-
 ing 1t clear to us that we were to
 return in 15 minutes I wandered to-
 wards the north. trusting to luck that
 we would find a good place to hide
 iron. the rest of the camp, who by this
 time were surely looking for us. After walk of about five minutes I came
 to ar old fence. I climbed this to get a good view of the surrounding coln-
 try. To the south of me was an i'm. mense grove of pine trees. To the north was large cornfield. While climbing the fence I noticed a large
 blackberry bush. As I stepped to the ground one of the railings gave way and down went into the blackberry patch 10 feet or more into a ditch.
 As l scrambled to my feet to make my way out I noticed small cave. about four feet wide and five feet high I looked into the mouth of the cave. but decided that 1t was too dark