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Horace Kephart to Albert Britt, August 23, 1919, page 2

  • wcu_kephart-1969.jpg
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  • Jeffreys' Hell, of Monroe County, When we got down to the first house in Tennessee, about six miles from the divide, we saw a cornfield that slopes at an angle of full 50 decrees. The lower part of it is steeper still, and must have t-e®n cultivated on hands c*.nd knees. A pumpkin broke loose and fell out of it, bursting like a bombshell in the trail. But before we got to that house, while going Indian file on a winding trail through the laurel, we saw fresh footprints pointed our way. No one could have passed us unnoticed. So, as it was our business to interrogate everyone we met, we turned back a few paces and peered into the thicket at our left. There lay a burlap sack of stuff that had been hastily abandoned. Some man had heard us coming and had dodged aside. We entered the thicket to where the sack lay, and stood there, at gaze and listening, for several minutes. Beyond question the men were lying facing us within a few yards. M^;; i^aapanions advanced, while I went back on the trail a bit to atop any break out in that direction. Just then a young man came up from the rear, saw what was up, poised his shotgun and stood at alert. It turned out that his companions had heard but not seen us, and jumped aside, hiding. They were of no use to us, and we went on. This only illustrates &hw suspicious and jumpy the people were. For the first time in my life I found it hard to get food and shelter among southern mountaineers. Our mission was too obviously hostile to somebody, and. we had come ig£Aon them from the rear. Until they learned who the "somebody" was, and just who we were, they were scared or hostile, according to temperament. Afterward they shared with us the best they had. Next day we crossed Sugarland Mountain into "Godforsaken." There is only one crossing. It goes sharply up the side of what-^^ Jufa- &&*3HBg%%0&k a precipice, though heavily timbered, for some 1,900 or maybe 2,"00 feet. The top is only five feet wide. The descent on the other side is just as steep. A clue led us to a warn lumber camp that was being built on Rough Creek. We waited for the hands tomcome in to dinner. One of them, a North Carolinian who knew us, spied us at some distance, jumped like a cat into the laurel, and fled the country. The rest of the crew came in, but many were nervous or ill-tempered at our presence. We ate a snaek here. The men we sought were not in this outfit. Another clue was picked up. My companions went on to a camp' on Little River, while I returned over the mountain alone, being In no shape for a night journey over more cliffs. (The batteries of our two search-lights would not last very long, and my eyes are no longer good at night. Besides, 1 was darned tired.) When just over the summit, I stepped on a loose mossy rock, fell, and wrenched my knee. Was more than two hours getting down the mountain, sidewise^ as the knee immediately stiffened. The other men came in late, reporting another false lead. We had other adventures; but I must cut this short. I came out on a mule. This was the most hazardous part of the whole performance { the trail looks impossible for "ridin' critters," and is so for any that are not mountain bred.
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