Arrangements for automobiles having been made over long distance, a party of A. P. L. men, six in number, headed by Agent Crawford of the Department of Justice, left Birmingham at 3:50 P. M. Thursday, November 7 (the day made famous by the premature Armistice celebration), arriving at Goodwater about 6:00 P. M.
After supper they were met by two 100 per cent American volunteers with automobiles, and were driven about five miles beyond Goodwater. The latter informed them of the danger of arousing these parties by going over the regular road, on account of dogs barking, so they left the machines about two miles away from the cabin they were seeking and detoured over a large hill, in the dark and cold, to get to the cabin. The report says:
The humorous part of it was that, in spite of our precautions,
the "hound dawgs" treed us about a mile from the
place and certainly let forth unearthly baying. By the time
we reached and surrounded the cabin, the entire household
was aroused. Again we seemed doomed to disappointment,
for we were informed that the parties we sought had left there
just four days before—the same length of time by which we
missed them in Shelby County.
After exploring the country in the immediate vicinity we finally secured a tip that the brothers were near another town about forty miles away, so we regained the machines and returned to Goodwater, arriving there about 10:30 p. m. Feeling that perhaps some word might reach the parties that we were after them, if we postponed the trip, our drivers, after much discussion finally agreed to drive us to Kellyton, Alabama, about ten miles from Goodwater, to a man who ran a jitney line. It was the coldest night of the year, with only the stars as light. Finally we reached Kellyton, shortly after midnight, and while two of us were arousing the jitney man the others collected leaves and firewood and in a few minutes had a roaring fire by the roadside to warm our frozen extremities.
Until we acquainted the jitney man with the urgency of the matter, he demurred about getting out in the cold, saying he had only two Ford cars and would have to depend on a thirteen-year-old son to drive the second car of the two. He was persuaded to take us over the thirty miles of rough country roads, with our drivers rather uncertain of the correct route.
We reached Wadley, Alabama, about five o'clock in the morning. Some coffee filled a long-felt want and in a few minutes
