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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Gunpowder

In quaking terror Ichabod dashed ahead, but the unknown followed close. Then the moonlight, through a rifting cloud, revealed the headless horseman! More ghastly still, his head rested on the pommel of his saddle! Away they flew, Ichabod madly spurring Gunpowder, while the sinister horseman came galloping after.

As they reached the haunted road, turning off to Sleepy Hollow, the girth of Ichabod's saddle broke. Gripping his steed around the neck, as the saddle slipped from beneath him, he still plunged on, with the ghostly rider pursuing him.

The church bridge, where in Brom Bones's tale the specter had vanished, was just ahead. Another moment and old Gunpowder was thundering over the resounding planks.

Here Ichabod, casting a backward glance, saw the goblin rising in his stirrups and in the very act of hurling his head.

The horrible missile crashed against Ichabod's cranium and he plunged headlong into the road--while Gunpowder and the ghostly horseman swept on. The next morning the old horse was found, saddleless, grazing at his master's gate. But no Ichabod!

In the road by the church was found the saddle. Farther on was the trampled hat of the unfortunate pedagogue--and close beside it a shattered pumpkin! The whole neighborhood was aroused. Brom Bones's story and all the other weird tales were called to mind, and the good folk sagely concluded that Ichabod had been carried off by the headless horseman.

Soon the school was removed to a less haunted section. Another pedagogue reigned, and Ichabod became only a legend.

It is true that several years later an old farmer, returning from New York, brought news that Ichabod was still alive; that fear of the goblin and chagrin at his dismissal by the heiress had caused his flight; that in another part of the country he had taught school, studied law, and become justice of the Ten-pound Court.

Brom Bones, who, shortly after his rival's disappearance, had led the blooming Katrina to the altar, was observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related. At the mention of the pumpkin he never failed to laugh heartily, which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to disclose.