“Well, he was inside the draft age, and we sent him into the Army. We saw to it that his wife got her share of his pay—the first support he had given her in many months. “I forgot about this case, so many others came in. The days went by until not so long ago. After the armistice was signed and just before I came down here, some one knocked at my door. There came in a smiling young woman, neatly dressed, a neatly dressed baby in her arms. And with her was a tall, grinning, brown-faced, hard-bitten, well-set-up young man, in the uniform of the United States Army. He had a sergeant’s chevrons on his sleeve. I did not know any of these people. “‘That’s Joe,’ said the young woman. Then I remembered it all. It made me feel rather funny—I couldn’t really quite believe it. “‘He does not drink,’ said the wife. ‘I am so glad he went into the Army.’ “Well, maybe you think I’m not glad of my share in remaking a man like that. It paid me for all my work and worry in the League. I believe that our Division would have made good if it had not done anything more than just what it did for Joe.” One does not know of any better summary of the slacker raids than that conveyed by this simple little story from one chief out of very many hundreds. CHAPTER XII SKULKER CHASING Hunting Bad Men—Deserter-Catching in the Southern Mountains—Tricks of the Slacker’s Trade—Running Down Unwilling Patriots—Some A. P. L. Adventures—Death of a Deserter—How a Southern Ranger Brings Them In. One of the earliest recollections of the writer’s boyhood is that of seeing his father busily engaged in molding bullets for his rifle on a certain Sunday morning—at that time the old muzzle-loading rifle was still in use. The old gentleman was with the Army Recruiting Service in the Civil War, in a branch which at times was obliged to look after men who were evading the draft or unduly prolonging their furloughs, or who belonged to that detested group of conscientious objectors and obstructionists who at that time bore the local name of “Copperheads.” Some of these men had ambushed and killed two of the Army men sent out to bring them in, and as others of the force then took up the matter, it was deemed wise to be alert and well armed. The murderers were duly apprehended and dealt with.