by: Marty Chrisman

An ambulance was waiting when the search party reached the edge of the swamp with Luke. Cooter had called Daisy on the walkie talkie as soon as they found Luke. The ambulance attendants quickly transferred Luke to their gurney and loaded him into the back of the ambulance. Doc Pedicord climbed in beside him, along with Bo who wasn’t about to leave his cousin out of his sight. Cooter and Jessie climbed into Dixie beside Daisy to follow the ambulance to the Tri County Medical Center in Cedar City. Roscoe had been notified and he was looking for the Carsons.

At the hospital, Luke was rushed into the emergency room. Doc Pedicord followed behind, promising to let the Dukes know as soon as he had any word on Luke’s condition. Jesse, Bo, Cooter and Daisy, along with several members of the search party sat down to wait for news about Luke.

It was almost three hours before Doc Pedicord finally rejoined them in the waiting room. He looked tired with dark circles under his eyes. “Luke should be fine.” He told the anxious friends and family members. “There was some internal bleeding but we managed to get that stopped and we’re treated the other injuries. He’s going to have to stay here for at least a few days so we can keep an eye on the stab wound and the injuries to his back, but I don’t anticipate any complications or problems.” He motioned for Jesse to join him in one corner of the room, out of earshot of the others. “Jesse, Luke would have bled to death from that stab wound before we even got there if someone hadn’t found him and made that poultice. As matter of fact, he’d probably be in a lot worse condition than he is right now if someone hadn’t taken care of him so well before we got there.”

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By: Hilery “Scoot” Davenport
Edited by: Hoss

It was a wonderful spring day and the Dukes were all on their way to town. Cooter had asked them to come keep his second cousin, Hilery Ann, busy while he worked on Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane’s patrolcar. It was the least the Dukes could do, seein’ how it was them who ran the poor sheriff into the ditch.

Hilery was a wild one for her age. She was as knowledgeable as her cousin when it came to cars, as beautiful as Daisy, and drove like the Duke Boys. She also had the same knack for finding trouble.

You see, Cooter wanted Daisy to talk to Hilery about gettin’ a job up at the General Store helpin’ Mr. Rhuebottom, because working in a garage with cars was no place for a young lady in his eyes. He believed his cousin wouldn’t be able to handle working on a vehicle. Little did he know, she was always picking up racing magazines, books on how to fix automobiles, car manuals, and whatnot behind his back. She made sure he didn’t know about it ‘cause he didn’t approve of most of those topics for her; mostly because she was a young lady, even if she acted more like a tomboy, which he was not proud of. She had been that way since he’d taken her in after her parents died when she was just 13. No matter what Cooter did or tried, she didn’t change her attitude.

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by: Karen Campbell

Harlan and Jason, who’d followed Boss’s white caddy out to the farm, had hung
back until the patrol cars had gone their separate ways. Now, with Enos after the Transam and Justice after the race car, they felt the odds were on their side. They spotted the white Cadillac and the eighteen wheeler rounding a curve ahead. “A piece of cake,” Harlan chuckled low in his throat. “They can’t maneuver in that big boat. Hell, they ain’t even got a roof to protect them!”
Jason chewed his lip nervously. “Yeah, but Harlan, they’s smokeys too, plain
wrapper or not. You really think–”
Harlan’s patience snapped. “Well, what do you think we oughtta do? Just drive
up nice ‘n say, please officers, can we have what’s in that there truck? We’s the FBI, don’t you know we’s incognito! This close to paydirt and you lose your nerve? I oughtta–”
“Now, take it easy, Harlan! I ain’t losing my nerve, I’m just bein’ cautious. Now
you get me up there an’ I’ll get both of ’em out of the way, easier ‘n shooing a couple of
flies off an ol’ hound dog.” He checked his pistol carefully as they drew up on the Cadillac.
“I ain’t that partial to witnesses neither.”

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by: Marty Chrisman

One by one the various search parties checked in. The reports were always the same. No sign of Luke and no sign of the Carsons. After all the other locations in the country had been checked without success, the search party gathered at the swamp, the last place they had to look. Because it was too dangerous to separate and search, they decided to stay together. They would form one long line and search that way. Everyone in the search party was an expert tracker. They knew what to look for to follow a trail, no matter how small or insignificant it might appear to someone else.

Bo and Jesse were in the middle of the line with friends and neighbors on either side of them. The line of searchers stretched out for a good mile or more. It was decided that Daisy would stay with the vehicles so she could CB for additional help if they needed it. Cooter had a walkie talkie so he could get hold of Daisy and let her know if they found Luke. Slowly, the searchers began to move into the swamp.

They had only gone a short distance when one of the searchers yelled out that he had found what appeared to be a trail leading deep into the swamp. The other searchers quickly joined around and agreed that there did seem to be evidence of a trail and a fairly recent one too. And it looked like it had been made by at least 3 men on foot, maybe more. The searchers tightened up their line to concentrate on following the trail they’d found. It seemed to be leading into the deepest most dangerous part of the swamp.

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by: Kristy Duke