After a period of panic, Bo Duke had calmed down, taking deep breaths.

'Get yourself together.' He mentally commanded himself, although that was a whole lot easier said than done. As he lay with eyes closed, he remembered the light he had seen. That light had to be there for a reason. Bo dared open his eyes and looked again, hoping it hadn't been a figment of his imagination. Sure enough, it was still there. Fortunately, Charlie and Horace had tied his hands in front, which allowed him to put his fingers up to the light. When he did, he felt a tube of some sort, and a slightly damp mist oozing out.

'Oxygen'. Bo whispered. It had to be. He realized that the time he had been awake was more than enough to deplete any remaining oxygen levels in the coffin, even if he didn't figure in the mysterious amount of time he had spent knocked out. Bo took another deep breath. The scene was eerily like a horror flick he had seen years back, when he and Luke used to ditch school to go watch those cheesy horror flicks at the Capitol City Triple. Apparently, Horace and Charlie had seen the same movie.

Bo felt around to the side of his belt. He wasn't altogether surprised to find his knife still in place. Anything on his person left out of the grave would have been evidence of the foul play, he knew. Hanging around with his genius of an older cousin did rub off on him from time to time.

Bo managed to flick the blade open with one hand and saw at the ropes with his other. After a short while, he had success. While he couldn't do anything with his hands to free himself, it at least made him feel a little better. He took the opportunity to peel his shirt off, although in the cramped space it took some time and was rather difficult. But off it came at last. He used the material to blot the sweat from his skin. Even at six feet under, it was getting incredibly hot in there.

XXXXXX

Luke figured Boss may be in a better frame of mind when he didn't have cash to concentrate on. He had to go back to him and see if he could talk him into that loan. It was Bo's only hope.

"Iola?" Luke asked, approaching Boss's secretary again. "How long is Boss gonna be uh 'takin' inventory'?"

"Gosh Luke. It's hard to say. He just started this mornin'. These things usually last him three or four days."

Luke definitely didn't have that kind of time to play with. He decided it was now or never with Boss. He walked back to his office and opened the door again.

"Luke Duke, I thought I told you to get out of here!" Boss commanded.

"I know Boss, but if you will just hear me out……."

"The only thing I want to HEAR is your boots walkin' OUT of this office." Boss huffed.

Luke was persistent. "Boss, we got family problems. Real bad family problems. I need a loan, and I need it this evening."

"Well." Boss replied, puffing on his cigar. "If you're in such dire straits, why ain't Jesse Duke out here beggin' for this loan?"

"Jesse don't know I'm here." Luke admitted.

"Humph. Well if Jesse ain't here then it ain't no emergency! 'Sides, what would you have worth puttin' up?"

"But Boss…." Luke said, almost telling him that Bo was in trouble before catching himself. He simply pounded the desk in frustration.

"What are you doin'? Threatenin' me, or trying to destroy my personal property?" Boss asked, suddenly taken aback, but trying not to show it. Luke simply responded by putting up his hands and shaking his head.

"You high tail it outta here, Luke Duke. If you step one foot back into my office this evening, I'll have you thrown in jail, and I mean it this time!"

Luke beat a hasty retreat before Boss changed his mind. He would be no help to Bo at allbehind bars.

Once outside, he sat on the steps and pondered for a long time. The only one that seemed to notice was a curious mechanic across the street that was dying to call the Duke farm but had promised not to.

Finally after awhile, Luke's face brightened but at the same time had a look of dread. He had an idea. It wasn't something he wanted to do, but the situation was desperate. He ran down the steps to the General and picked up the C.B. "Lost Sheep callin' Shepherd."

"This here's Shepherd." Uncle Jesse replied a moment later, his wide grin obvious in his voice. "Uh, everything alright, Luke?"

"No need to worry. I'm gonna be home tonight and was wonderin' if you needed anything from the store."

"Well that's certainly good to know!" Jesse beamed. "As a matter of fact I do. Get me some flour so's I can make some chicken and dumplin's." He laughed a bit. "Just wait till Bo gets back from Nashville and finds out we had his favorite dish while he was away!"

Luke didn't reply but thought that in the best of conditions, Bo was probably starving by now.

"Ten-four shepherd." Luke replied, setting the C. B. down. He then ran into the store.

XXXXXX

Actually Bo's stomach was growling with hunger about that time, but Bo didn't realize it. He was concentrating on how hot he was.

Some of that was from the simple fact that it was warm in there anyway, but mostly it was from the energy he had exerted from yelling for help over and over again through the pipe that delivered the oxygen.

The more overheated Bo got, the more he began to panic again, which started a chain reaction. Finally, drenched in sweat, suffocating from the heat, and exhausted, his eyes closed in unconsciousness once again.

Ya know, I didn't think it could get that hot underground, but I'll take it as I see it. 'Cause the only way to tell for sure would be to put myself in that position. And friends, there ain't no way I'm goin' that far.