by: Marty Chrisman
The next morning after breakfast the boys got ready to mend a fence in the back field. Sometimes it seemed like half their time was spend mending fences (and sometimes it was especially the ones they drove through with the General) Daisy was working the early shift at the Boar’s Nest and Jesse had gone into town to pick up some groceries so the boys were alone on the farm.
“Dang it!” Bo said in an irritated voice
“What?” Luke asked glancing up from where he was nailing a bottom board in place
“We’re out of nails.” Bo told him
“I thought you grabbed some more.” Luke said in an annoyed tone, as he straightened up
“I thought you did.”
“I’ll go get some more.” Luke said, walking over to the General and sliding beneath the wheel to head back up to the barn after more nails. Bo nodded and turned his attention back to the second of fence he was trying to repair. Neither one of the boys thought about Jesse warning to Luke about going anywhere by himself. They figured Luke was safe as long as he was on Duke property.
When he got back to the house (which was about a mile from the fence they were mending) Luke pulled the General up next to the barn and climbed out. Going into the barn, he started rummaging for the box of nails he had seen earlier that morning. He had no idea that he wasn’t alone until he felt the barrel of a shotgun pressing against his back and a voice hissing in his ear “Don’t move and don’t make a sound. Put your hands behind your back.” Luke did as he was told, wincing as he felt someone tying his hands tightly with a piece of rope. A little too tightly, he could feel the rough fiber of the rope cutting into his wrists. Then a gag was tied tightly around his head forcing his mouth open and making it impossible for him to yell out. A hand grabbed him roughly by the arm and spun him around. Luke felt an uneasy tightening in his belly when he found himself staring at Cyrus Carson and his two sons.
“I told your Uncle we’d git you sooner or later.” Cyrus said with a cold laugh. “Now you’re gonna pay for hurting my little girl.” Billy grabbed Luke by the left arm, and Tommy grabbed his right arm and they followed their father out of the barn forcing Luke to go with them. They had parked their car on the road that ran in front of the farmhouse so that Luke hadn’t been able to see it when he came in from the field. He realized that they had to have been watching the farm, maybe for days, waiting for their chance to catch him alone. Cyrus unlocked the trunk and glared at Luke pointing his shotgun at his belly for good measure. “Git in.” he ordered.
When Luke didn’t move fast enough to suit him, the boys roughly pushed him into the trunk and Cyrus slammed down the lid. Luke lay there in the darkness, trapped and cursing himself for being careless enough to let himself get ambushed. He didn’t know what they had in mind for him but he knew it wasn’t going to be very pleasant. He was in trouble. A lot of trouble.
When Luke didn’t come back in a reasonable amount of time, Bo started to get annoyed and then he started to get worried. Cursing under his breath, he started walking back towards the house to see what was taking Luke so long. When he got closer to the barn, he saw the General but no sign of Luke. He checked the barn but he wasn’t in there. Thinking that he might have gone into the house to answer the phone or something, he went into the house to look for him but he wasn’t there either. Now Bo was really worried and more than a little scared.
He ran back out to the General and leaned in through the window on the passengers side, grabbing the mike to the CB. Pressing the transmit button, he said anxiously “Lost sheep to Shepard….you got your ears on, Shepard? Come back”
A few moments later Uncle Jesse’s voice said over the radio “This is Shepard. You boys got that fence done yet?”
“Uncle Jesse, this is Bo. I can’t find Luke anywhere. He came up to the barn to get some nails and now he’s gone….”
“I’m on my way.” Jesse said
Bo paced anxious back and forth in the barnyard while he waited for Jesse to get home. Ten minutes later his battered white pickup truck pulled into the drive. He skidded to a halt beside the General and climbed out of the cab. Bo looked at his Uncle with eyes that were filled with both concern and fear “I’m sorry, Uncle Jesse.” He said “Luke was just coming up to barn after some nails. I didn’t think anything of it…”
“It’s alright,” Jesse said putting a comforting hand on his youngest nephew’s shoulder “You’d reckon that a body would be safe on his own danged property! I called Rosco and that pea brain had better do something to help us find Luke.” With nothing else to do but wait for Rosco to arrive, that’s what Bo and Jesse did.