The friends ran without really knowing where they were going, but as they stole brief glimpses behind them, one fact became clear quite quickly: the best way to lose Little would be to duck down one of the narrow town alleys.
Rushing into the first one they came upon, they heard a crash behind them as Little realized too late that the alley was too narrow for a car. Banging the steering wheel in frustration, he jumped out of the car and took a second to observe the front end. While the body damage wasn't that terrible, something had apparently been jarred inside which rendered the car at least temporarily unusable. Turning toward the friends, he dashed into the alley on foot. The friends, having instinctively paused to observe the wreck, quickly brought their minds back to the task at hand when they discovered that their chosen path of escape led to a dead end.
"Quick! The ladder!" Cooter exclaimed, pointing to a rusted ladder that blended in with the red brick wall.
"You two hold it right there or I'll hafta put you in jail instead of sending you home!" Little demanded as he ran.
The threat had little effect on eitherof them because either result would, at best, mean the end of the search.. At worst, Little was pulling their chain and had every intention of jailing them one way or another.
Taking the rungs two at a time, the friends raced to the top of the building. Seeing some long forgotten sandbags at the top, Cooter reached down for one, intent on throwing it down on Little as he climbed the ladder. Guessing his thought, the Duke boy stopped him and urged him to run ahead. He didn't want caught any more than Cooter did, but hoisting a fifty pound bag onto the top of an officer's head as he was on a ladder would surely make him fall, and turn what was a simple escape into attempted murder.
The Duke boy neared the edge of the building and looked down in the square. It only took a brief glance for him to know that two cops from the nearby jail had answered Little's backup call. It also took him only that long to realize that Sammy's black Ford also now sat in the clear, having previously been blocked by Little's car.
He slapped Cooter's arm with the back of his hand two times quickly before pointing toward the car. Cooter nodded as Little ascended the ladder with his deputies close behind. Not used to the full blown foot chases that were almost an everyday occurrence over in Hazzard, Little found himself bent over trying to catch his breath.
The act afforded the friends the few precious seconds they would need. Fortunately, the space between the building they were on and the next one over was only about ten feet. Backing up a bit, they ran simultaneously and hurled over the alley toward the next building. As their feet touched the roof, the Duke boy slipped and fell forward, taking a second to recover from the blunt force. Pulling his friend up, Cooter urged him toward a door that led down to the store below.
It was their good luck that the door was unlocked. Dashing inside quickly, they took a moment to turn the lock behind them. When they descended the stairs and found themselves on the second floor, they realized that it was used by the clothing store below to house dusty forgotten boxes and unused merchandise displays. Now it was their turn for a much needed break. But as they heard the door rattle above them, they looked at each other wondering how long that break would last.
"Johnson! You double back in case they try to come out of the store!" Little demanded as he worked against the lock.
Johnson was exhausted himself but knew that to do anything other than follow Little's orders would put the sheriff in an outrage. Taking a much needed deep breath, he turned and ran, leaping back over the opening of the narrow alley below.
Little, being who he was, only took seconds to become frustrated enough to kick the door in, which wasn't that hard considering the weathered door had most likely sat atop the building more or less undisturbed since it's construction.
After he and his deputy, Ben Dixon, descended the stairs, they stopped short when they entered the storage room. Although the door leading down to the first floor was open, Little wasn't stupid. He knew this would be the perfect place for the friends to hide. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw the tops of matching green hats and shoulders ducked behind a stack of boxes.
"Alright Duke, Davenport." Little began, getting his gun out while Dixon did the same. "The game's over. Now you boys come outta there nice and easy."
When no effort to move was made. Little became even more cross. "I told you boys ta get up! Noow if I hafta tell ya again, you'll be in jail for the weekend!"
When, again, there was no movement, Little turned to Dixon. "Get them outta there!"
"Alright guys." Dixon said, moving toward them. "You're under arrest."
When he placed his hand on a shoulder, what happened next very nearly made him scream!
That's because the movement caused the head to fall off---the head of one of the mannequins that had been quickly outfitted in the landscaping attire!
Little took only a moment to stare at the armless, legless torso before rushing toward the window. Looking into the square, he spied two shirtless Hazzard boys being pursued byJohnson. Reaching the black Ford once again, they peeled away from town, leaving an exhausted officer to catch his breath.
"Boy." The Duke boy said, heaving deep breaths as he drove out of town. "That was a close call."
"A little too close, I'd say." Cooter replied between breaths of his own.
The pair continued to ride out of town in no particular direction. Although they didn't see anyone in pursuit, they deliberately took several turns, some on rather bumpy roads, in order to thwart any would-be chasers.
After a few minutes, they felt comfortable enough to take a break. Coming up on a secluded pond, they parked under a big shade tree and cut the engine before walking down to drink and splash some water on their sweat drenched skin.
"Well, seems we're safe from Little….for now anyway." The Duke boy announced.
Cooter nodded. "It helps that his police force isn't that much bigger than Hazzard's."
"I suppose, but that's bound to change. Seein' how I'm a citizen of Hazzard, he's liable to call Rosco over here to help look for me."
"Well who says that's a bad thing? Rosco's been just as anxious as you have to get them crooks. A call from Little would make his day, since Little would see he got temporary jurisdiction rights."
The Duke boy sighed. "The only bad thing about all that would be the fact that if he called Rosco, chances are that Jesse would find out I's over here too. And that wouldn't be good…..wouldn't be good at all."
"Then what we gotta do is make sure Jesse don't find out."
"How do yousuggest we go about that?"
"Let's get Sammy on the horn. We'll have him call over to Hazzard and talk to Rosco, kinda explain what's goin' on before Rosco opens that big trap of his."
The friends walked back up the hill to the Ford where they climbed back in. Reaching for the CB, Cooter put out a call to Sammy, but all he got back was dead air. Frowning, he examined the device and noted that some wiring had fell loose in the bumpy escape.
"Dang! It'd take a good twenty minutes to fix this!" Cooter complained.
"We ain't got that kinda time." The Duke boy replied. "It'd be faster just to drive back over there."
"Oh we can't do that. I told Little at that roadblock yesterday that I's comin' to see Sammy. Chances are that's the first place he's gonna go when he starts lookin' for you."
"I know where we can go!" The Duke boy snapped his fingers. "We can go back over to Brownie's. Sheriff Little probably wouldn't even think to look there, seein' how Chris is on the force."
"And Brownie sure ain't gonna let Chris say nothin'!" Cooter exclaimed, as his friend started up the car and headed in the direction of Brownie's house."
XXXXXXXX
"Well thar you boys are!" Brownie smiled when he answered the door, taking a moment to tell his dogs, which were in the pen outside, to hush. "Ah been wonderin' what became of ya. Ain't heard from ya since ya cut outta here with Chris yesterday."
"We don't mean to be rude Brownie, but we gotta use your phone!" The Duke boy exclaimed, pushing past the old man.
"Whal can't it wait? Ah got somethin' to tell ya."
"I'm afraid not, Brownie." Cooter answered for his friend as the Duke boy dialed the Hazzard Police Station.
Brownie looked at the pair and grinned. "Whatcha been out doin'? Lose ya shirts in a bet?"
"Enos! Is Rosco there?" The Duke boy asked into the phone. "Yes I'm fine Enos. Yeah, she's fine. Everybody's fine. Can ya put Rosco on the line?" He waited a few moments as a movement inside Brownie's house caught Cooter's attention. Cooter's mouth dropped open at the sight to which the Duke boy had his back turned. He desperately found himself wanting to warn his friend but his feet seemed glued to the ground and he couldn't make himself utter a sound.
"Rosco! It's me. Listen…..you might be getting a call from Sheriff Little. Now I ain't got time for details and I ain't gonna tell you your job, but I am gonna ask you to keep quiet about that call. No matter what you hear, or what you decide, just please don't tell Uncle Jesse!"
"Don't tell Uncle Jesse what?"
The Duke boy froze up when he heard those words and felt a warm breath on the back of his neck.
And his fears were confirmed when he turned around and met the gaze of a very angry old man in a red cap!
Ya know, with Jesse lookin' like that, I'd personally rather take my chances with big Sheriff Little.