INDEPENDENCE DAY SUPPER, FIREWORKS AND HIGHWAYMEN part 3 by Leo F. Kohl

I now present to you INDEPENDENCE DAY SUPPER, FIREWORKS AND HIGHWAYMEN part 3 by Leo F. Kohl with no commercial interruptions.


Once they left Longworth’s Winery, Francois allowed the horses to proceed at a slow canter, since it was night and he was not sure of the directions he should take. At his side, Marty, who had alertly watched the direction they traveled on the way to Longworth’s, told Francois to turn on certain roads until they were out on what appeared to be the main road headed toward their winery. They had not been on that road ten minutes, when Marty suddenly cocked his head to the side, looked behind them, and said to Francois, “We’re bein’ followed! Two men on horses an’ travelin’ at full gallop!” With that casual remark, Marty removed his pistol from its
holster and held it in his right had against the metal grillwork siding of the driver’s seat. Marty
told Francois to continue on at the slow pace they had been traveling.

In less than five minutes, the horses caught up with the carriage, and the riders slowed their pace and looked over each of them as they slowly passed on both sides of the carriage and , stopped, then turned and faced the team of horses. The big, brawny one of the two men dis- mounted and Marty noted that he drew his pistol from its holster, as it flashed dully in the light from the almost-full moon. Holding his pistol so it could not be seen by the folks on the carriage, the man approached, then loudly called out, “Halt! Stand and deliver! Now, Allhoff, you’re gonna get yours for killin’ my friends out in California!”

Fully alerted, Marty saw the man start to slowly raise his pistol, when Marty suddenly aimed and fired at the man and hit him dead center in the heart! The man grunted loudly,
“Uh-h-h-h!” Then he fell forward with his arms outstretched as his pistol fell to the ground from
his now dead fingers.

Confused and frightened by the shot, the other man’s horse reared up and made it impossible for the second man to draw his pistol. Marty pushed Francois flat on the seat, and softly said to him, “Good! Stay there ‘til I tell you to get up!”

Marty waited cooly until the horse’s front hooves hit the ground, then aimed and fired a
second shot. The ball found its mark just above the left eyebrow, as it entered the man’s fore- head. When that happened, the man let out the most horrible scream Marty had ever heard. The second shot frightened the horse once again, as it reared up and dislodged the now dead rider from his saddle and he tumbled face down in the road and blood from his wound seeped into the ground.

As soon as he fired his second shot, Marty jumped down from the carriage, grabbed the reins of the frightened horse and led it to the rear of the carriage, where he tied it securely to a ring that was there for that purpose. Then he went back to where the tall, thin road agent lay, and removed his pistol from its holster and jammed it into his waistband.

Then he went to the front of Francois’ team of horses to do the same thing with the other horse, and stopped briefly to check on the other road agent sprawled out on the road. He reached down and picked up the dead man’s revolver, then stuck it in his jacket pocket. He led the other horse to the back of the carriage and tied it to another set of rings, then called out to Francois, “Francois! Could you please come down here an’ give me a hand loading these two dead bodies on their horses? Oh! An’ do you have any rope in the carriage’s boot to use to tie ‘em down? I promised Sheriff O’Leery I’d bring him the bodies if I could!”

Francois, somewhat traumatized by the incident, climbed slowly down from the carriage,
went to its boot in the rear and came back to Marty with a coil of rope, as he exclaimed, “Sacre bleu! Tres mal! Tres mal!” Then the two of them struggled to get the larger of the two men
across the saddle and properly tied down so the body would not fall off in transit. The tall, thin man was much easier to handle, load onto his horse and tie him down.

Francois, a horrified expression on his face, exclaimed to Marty, “Mon Dieu, mon amis!
My God, my friend! You mean to tell me you shot five men out in California? For what reason?”

Marty answered, “To stay alive! You have to shoot first and ask questions later! Jus’ like
this big man here! He had his pistol drawn an’ was ready to fire, when I shot him first! If the other one could have gotten to his pistol, I’m sure he’d have taken a shot at me! Lucky for me he had a spooky horse! Now that we’ve got the bodies loaded, le’s head fer the Sheriff’s office in Cincinnati! Wanna see the expression on O’Leery’s face when we bring the two in to him!”

As they were climbing back to the driver’s seat, Marty asked Louisa, “You all right?”

“Still shaking a little! But now that I see you are all right, everything is much brighter!” she replied, then asked her husband, “Where are we going now? Back to the winery?”

“Nope!” Marty replied. “We’re takin’ the bodies to the Sheriff’s office! Told O’Leery I
would! Like I jus’ told Francois, wanna see the look on his face ! Know he didn’t believe me!”

Francois turned the carriage around and headed back in the direction of Cincinnati, which took them almost an hour. At that time of night, there was almost no traffic, and when they pulled up in front of the Sheriff’s office, pandemonium erupted! Half a dozen deputies accompanied Sheriff O’Leery to Francois’ carriage, as Marty jumped down and confronted the Sheriff. “There you are, Tim! All tied up an’ waitin’ for the Coroner! Correct me if I’m wrong, but the big one’s Steve Bearess, an the tall, thin one’s Ron Rotzinger! Right?”

O’Leery replied, “Right as rain! But how the hell did you do it? An’ don’t tell me a little bird tol’ you!”

“Well, almost! ‘Member I told you my brother, John, an’ I were scouts for Jack Lord’s
wagon train we traveled in goin’ ‘cross country to California. Learned how to use my senses, an’ tonight, it paid off! Ever been out to Longworth’s winery?”

“Yeah!” O’Leery replied. “A few times! Why?”

Marty asked him, “Member seein’ a round hill covered with trees to the left o’ the drive into the winery? Think that’s where these two were holed up! ‘Pears there might be a house on the other side o’ that round hill, ‘cause I saw two pairs o’ legs on the other side o’ the trees, but the trees blocked the view of the upper parts o’ the bodies. Suggest you obtain a warrant n’ go check it out!”

“Are you sure?” O’Leery asked him.

Marty replied, “Absolutely! When you an’ your Deputies’ve checked it all out, come by
Pianud’s Winery an’ let us know what you’ve found!”

O’Leery turned to Francois and asked him how he felt.

“Mon ami! My friend! Everything happened so fast, were it not for Marty, here, and I was alone, I might be lying by the side of the road, dead! I was not aware you knew each other out in California, nor that Marty had killed five men while he was out there!”

Then one of the Deputies who was standing beside O’Leery asked Marty, “Are you the same Allhoff who shot those four thugs on Halloween over in Oakwood, an’ killed their leader?”

“Yep! I’m one an’ the same!” Marty replied. “Constable overheard ‘em makin’ plans to waylay me an’ work me over! Unbeknownst to the rest o’ them, their leader planned to kill me!
Jury voted unanimously that I was ‘Not Guilty’ by reason o’ self-defense. The three thugs were
declared ‘Guilty’ an’re still in Ohio State Prison!”

Then Marty commented, “It’s after midnight, an’ tomorrow we start the summer grape harvest, so we better get back to the winery, don’t you think, Francois?”

Before Francois could respond, O’Leery said to both of them, “We’ll follow up on the information you just gave us, an’ we’ll drop by the winery a’ let you know what we found. Sound all right to you?”

“Fine with us! Right, Francois?” Marty asked his employer.

“Tres bien! Very good!” Francois responded, “Just keep us out of any adverse publicity!”

O’Leery replied, “Will do the best I can, but you know these newspapers! They make everything worse than what they really are, and actually lie about it to get a good story out of it!
Yellow Journalism! Phooey! See you sometime tomorrow!”

Francois turned the carriage around, and in an hour, were back at Pinaud’s Winery, where all three sought sleep as soon as possible.


Come back in two weeks to find out what happens to Marty and Francois next!