The content of the novel mrida the headless horseman. "Headless horseman

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"Headless horseman" is a novel by Mine Reid, written in 1865 and based on the author's adventures in America.

Plot

The novel takes place in the fifties of the XIX century in the border regions of Texas. Wealthy planter Woodley Poindexter and his family of son, daughter and nephew move from Louisiana to their new home, Casa del Corvo.

Shortly after the Poindexters have settled in the Casa del Corvo, the planter hosts a big reception dedicated to a successful move and closer acquaintance with the Texas elite. Maurice Gerald is also present at this reception, who undertook to deliver two dozen wild horses to the planter's family. In accordance with Irish custom, he gives a rare and valuable mustang to the daughter of a planter, which further inflames love in her heart and hatred in her cousin's soul. Now he is already determined to remove the young mustanger from his path. Having conceived a cunning plan to kill Maurice, he decides to carry it out the next evening, in the bar of the village, which was formed near Fort Inge. He allegedly accidentally pushed and doused the Irishman, who answered him the same. The resulting quarrel ends in a duel. Calhoun clearly underestimated his opponent, and paid the price, surviving only thanks to the generosity of Maurice. Thus, by winning this fight, the mustanger won the respect of the locals and officers of the fort, and also made the retired captain terrified of him.

Calhoun does not back down from his plan to kill Maurice, but not with his own hands, but by paying another mustanger, bandit Miguel Diaz. Diaz, having learned that the Indians are on the warpath, gladly agrees to this business.

At the same time, after the recovery of Maurice, he and Louise began to secretly correspond with the help of the so-called. "air mail", and then, unable to withstand a long separation, meet in the garden of Casa del Corvo. After their last meeting, a tragic event occurred. Calhoun finds Maurice and Louise in the garden and persuades Louise's brother to kill the mustanger. Thanks in part to Louise's intercession, and in part to Henry's prudence, Maurice manages to escape unscathed. Young Poindexter, after listening to his sister, decides that he acted unreasonably, and is going to catch up with Gerald and apologize to him. At night, he leaves in pursuit of the mustanger. Following Henry, his cousin Cassius leaves, but with a different purpose: he knows that tomorrow Maurice is leaving for Ireland, and decides to kill him that night.

The next morning, as they gather for breakfast, the Poindexter family discovers that Henry, contrary to his habit, did not get up on time and did not show up for an early breakfast. He wasn't in the house either. At this time, one of the slaves caught his horse on the prairie, without a rider and smeared with blood. Everyone thinks Henry Poindexter is dead. In search of the body and the killer, a detachment of armed planters and soldiers is equipped, who in their search achieves some success and finds evidence of the death of the young man. During the search, this squad encounters a terrible headless horseman. Not finding a reasonable guess what it could be, the detachment goes to spend the night.

On the same night, Diaz and his accomplices, disguised as Indians, invade Maurice's home on the Alamo with the clear intention of killing him. Not finding him there, they decide to wait for him in the hut. And soon someone arrived. But not the owner of the dwelling, but the same headless horseman. Frightened to death, the bandits quickly retreated. They were the second to see the mysterious headless horseman.

Meanwhile, Maurice's friend, Zebulon Stump, worried about the disappearance of the Irishman, was in his hut with his servant Felim, who was scared to death by the Indians. They receive a note from the Mustanger delivered by his dog Tara. They go to the indicated place and barely make it in time, killing the jaguar that attacked the guy. Maurice was very ill, because of what - is unknown. The old hunter Stump and the mustanger's servant Felim take the young man to their house, where he is found by a search party. After finding Henry's clothes in his cabin, the Regulators decide to have a lynching on the spot. But thanks to the intervention of Zeb Stump, as well as Indian things in Maurice's hut, talking about a possible Comanche invasion, the trial is postponed.

Meanwhile, everyone is sure that Henry Poindexter is dead and Maurice Gerald is responsible for his death. In a state of fever, he awaits a legal trial in the guardhouse of Fort Inge. Some of the Mustanger's friends, namely the Major, the commandant of the fort, Spangler, Zeb Stump and Louise Poindexter are sure that it was not Maurice who committed the murder, but someone else. After gaining three extra days from the major to delay the trial, Zeb Stump sets off for the prairie, where he is determined to find evidence of his friend's innocence. And he finds them, and now he knows for sure who the real killer is and what the mysterious headless horseman is. He reports everything to the commandant of the fort, and everyone is awaiting trial.

Having woken up from the clouding of his mind, Maurice gives evidence at the trial, which makes many change their minds about the mustanger's guilt in this crime. Things change even more drastically when people see the headless horseman approaching the place of judgment.

This is where this monstrous secret is revealed. All this time, Henry Poindexter was the headless horseman. Calhoun killed him. This became known when they managed to extract from the body of Henry a bullet marked with the initials of Cassius Calhoun "K. K. K ”(“ Captain Cassius Calhoun ”). From the testimony of Maurice, it turned out that at the meeting, Henry and Maurice, according to the old custom of the Comanches, exchanged clothes and hats as a sign of reconciliation. Maurice then left, and Henry remained in that place, and after them the retired captain who pursued them also came there. Seeing a man in Mexican clothes, he mistook his brother for Maurice and shot him with a gun, and then cut off the head of the corpse. Maurice, who used to live among the Comanches, got acquainted with their custom of delivering warriors who died in battle on their war horses, hoisted Henry's body on his horse, and tied his head to the pommel of the saddle. Henry himself got on his horse, but, not knowing how to control someone else's horse, he turned him towards the terrible horseman. The horse was frightened by a terrible sight and suffered. Maurice, on the other hand, hit his head on a thick branch of a tree, fell from his horse and received a severe concussion. This was the reason for his sudden illness. And the horse with the headless corpse roamed the prairies for a long time until it ended up at the final court.

Zebulon presented evidence that Cassius was guilty. Guilty was confirmed both by a bullet marked with the initials "К.К.К" in the rider's body, and a fragment of a letter addressed to Cassius Calhoun, which the tracker found near the scene of the murder (Calhoun, loading his gun, used a paper wad). After that, the killer, realizing the hopelessness of his situation, tries to hide, leaving the court session and swiftly galloping on a horse to the prairie. However, Maurice the mustanger, on his excellent horse, from which Henry's corpse has already been removed, catches up with Cassius, detains him and delivers him back to court. The latter, in view of the irrefutable evidence presented by Zeb Stump, sentences Calhoun to death by hanging. Cassius takes his last word, in which he says that he does not want to die with the stigma of a fratricide, and said that he confused Maurice with Henry because they switched hats. At the end of the trial, Calhoun shot Maurice with a pistol, which, for some unknown reason, was not confiscated from him, after which he shot himself. But the bullet hit Maurice's locket, which Louise had given him. Maurice Gerald survived and turned out to be a rich Irishman, helped to buy the Poindexter estate and he and Louise stayed together ...

Characters

• Maurice Gerald is the main character, a poor mustanger in the USA and a wealthy baronet in his homeland.
• Louise Poindexter is Maurice's lover.
• Woodley Poindexter - Louise's father, a planter.
• Cassius Calhoun - Woodley's nephew, a retired military man with a scandalous reputation, loves Louise, shot himself at the final trial.
• Henry Poindexter - Louise's brother, killed and beheaded by his cousin, who mistook him for Maurice, his corpse and is the "Headless Horseman".
• Old Zebulon Stump is a hunter, a friend of Maurice who saved his life and proved his innocence.
• Miguel Diaz - Mexican, nicknamed "El Coyote", was executed after the murder of Isidora.
• Isidora Covarubio De Los Llanos - Diaz's lover, loves Maurice, killed by Diaz.
• Major Ringwood - officer, delayed Maurice's trial for three days.
• Spangler is a tracker, participated in the search for Henry or his body, one of the first to see the "Headless Horseman".
• Pluto is a servant in the Poindexter family.
• Felim O'Neill is Maurice's servant and foster brother.
• Tara - Maurice's dog, saved him several times from coyotes.
• Sam Manley is the leader of the regulars, the only one who believed in Maurice's innocence.
• Riders, regulars, people on trial, Diaz's accomplices, servants.
• Oberdofer - the owner of the inn

Translations

• The most famous translation of the novel into Russian, made by A. Yu. Makarova.

Screen adaptations

• The novel served as the basis for the film The Headless Horseman, which was filmed by Soviet director Vladimir Vainshtok in 1973.

see also

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An excerpt characterizing the Headless Horseman (novel)

On the next day of Boris' meeting with Rostov, there was a review of the Austrian and Russian troops, both fresh, who had come from Russia, and those who had returned from the campaign with Kutuzov. Both emperors, the Russian with the heir to the Tsarevich and the Austrian with the Archduke, made this review of the allied 80,000th army.
From early morning, smartly cleaned and cleaned troops began to move, lining up on the field in front of the fortress. Then thousands of feet and bayonets with fluttering banners moved and, at the command of the officers, stopped, turned around and formed up at intervals, bypassing other similar masses of infantry in different uniforms; then with measured stomp and rattling sounded elegant cavalry in blue, red, green embroidered uniforms with embroidered musicians in front, on black, red, gray horses; then, stretching out with its copper sound of trembling on carriages, cleaned, shiny cannons and with its own smell of overcoats, artillery crawled between the infantry and cavalry and was placed in designated places. Not only generals in full full dress uniform, with impossibly thick and thin waists and reddened, propped up collars, necks, in scarves and all orders; not only pomaded, dressed-up officers, but every soldier, with a fresh, washed and shaved face and cleaned up to the last possible shine with ammunition, each horse, groomed so that, like satin, its wool shone on it and hair to hair lay wetted mane, - everyone felt that something serious, significant and solemn was happening. Each general and soldier felt their insignificance, conscious of themselves as a grain of sand in this sea of ​​people, and together they felt their power, conscious of being part of this huge whole.
Intense chores and efforts began from early in the morning, and at 10 o'clock everything came into the required order. Rows lined up on the vast field. The whole army was stretched out in three lines. Cavalry in front, artillery in back, infantry in back.
Between each row of troops there was, as it were, a street. Three parts of this army were sharply separated from one another: the combat Kutuzovskaya (in which the Pavlogradites stood on the right flank in the front line), army and guard regiments that had come from Russia, and the Austrian army. But all stood under one line, under one command and in the same order.
As the wind swept through the leaves, an excited whisper: “They are coming! they're going!" Frightened voices were heard, and a wave of fuss over the last preparations ran through all the troops.
Ahead of Olmutz appeared a moving group. And at the same time, although the day was calm, a light stream of wind ran through the army and slightly shook the weather vanes of the lance and the unfurled banners that were rattled on their shafts. It seemed that the army itself, with this slight movement, expressed its joy at the approach of sovereigns. One voice was heard: "Attention!" Then, like roosters at dawn, the voices repeated in different directions. And everything went quiet.
In the dead silence only the sound of horses could be heard. It was the suite of emperors. The sovereigns drove up to the flank and the sounds of the trumpeters of the first cavalry regiment were heard, playing a general march. It seemed that it was not the trumpeters who played it, but the army itself, rejoicing at the approach of the sovereign, naturally made these sounds. Because of these sounds, one young, gentle voice of Emperor Alexander was clearly heard. He said hello, and the first regiment barked: Hurrah! so deafening, long, joyful that the people themselves were horrified by the number and strength of the bulk that they made up.
Rostov, standing in the forefront of the Kutuzov army, to which the sovereign approached the first, experienced the same feeling that every person in this army experienced - a feeling of self-forgetfulness, a proud consciousness of power and a passionate attraction to the one who was the cause of this triumph.
He felt that it depended on one word of this man that this whole mass (and he, associated with it, an insignificant grain of sand) would go into fire and into water, to crime, to death or to the greatest heroism, and therefore he could not help but tremble and freeze at the sight of that approaching word.
– Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! - thundered from all sides, and one regiment after another received the sovereign with the sounds of a general march; then Hurrah! ... general march and again Urra! and hooray!! which, growing stronger and stronger, merged into a deafening rumble.
Until the sovereign arrived, each regiment, in its silence and immobility, seemed like a lifeless body; as soon as the sovereign was compared with him, the regiment revived and thundered, joining the roar of the entire line that the sovereign had already passed. At the terrible, deafening sound of these voices, in the midst of the masses of the army, motionless, as if petrified in their quadrangles, carelessly, but symmetrically and, most importantly, hundreds of horsemen of the retinue moved freely and in front of them were two people - emperors. The restrained passionate attention of all this mass of people was undividedly focused on them.
Handsome, young Emperor Alexander, in a horse guards uniform, in a triangular hat, put on from the field, with his pleasant face and sonorous, soft voice attracted all the power of attention.
Rostov stood not far from the trumpeters and from afar with his keen eyes recognized the sovereign and followed his approach. When the sovereign approached at a distance of 20 steps and Nicholas clearly, to every detail, examined the beautiful, young and happy face of the emperor, he experienced a feeling of tenderness and delight, the like of which he had not experienced before. Everything - every feature, every movement - seemed to him charming in the sovereign.
Stopping in front of the Pavlograd regiment, the sovereign said something in French to the Austrian emperor and smiled.
Seeing this smile, Rostov himself involuntarily began to smile and felt an even stronger surge of love for his sovereign. He wanted to show his love for the sovereign in some way. He knew it was impossible and he wanted to cry.
The emperor called the regimental commander and said a few words to him.
"My God! what would happen to me if the sovereign turned to me! - thought Rostov: - I would die of happiness.
The emperor also addressed the officers:
- All, gentlemen (every word was heard by Rostov, like a sound from heaven), I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
How happy Rostov would be if he could now die for his tsar!
- You have earned the banners of St. George and will be worthy of them.
"Only die, die for him!" thought Rostov.
The sovereign also said something that Rostov did not hear, and the soldiers, pushing their chests, shouted: Hurrah! Rostov also shouted, bending down to the saddle, as much as he could, wanting to hurt himself with this cry, only to fully express his delight in the sovereign.
The sovereign stood for several seconds against the hussars, as if he were indecisive.
“How could the sovereign be in indecision?” thought Rostov, and then even this indecision seemed to Rostov majestic and charming, like everything that the sovereign did.
The indecision of the sovereign lasted for an instant. The leg of the sovereign, with a narrow, sharp toe of the boot, as was worn at that time, touched the groin of the english bay mare on which he rode; the hand of the sovereign in a white glove picked up the reins, he set off, accompanied by a randomly swaying sea of ​​\u200b\u200badjutants. He rode further and further, stopping at other regiments, and, finally, only his white plume was visible to Rostov from behind the retinue surrounding the emperors.
Among the masters of the retinue, Rostov noticed Bolkonsky, lazily and dissolutely sitting on a horse. Rostov remembered his yesterday's quarrel with him and the question presented itself, should - or should not call him. “Of course, it shouldn’t,” thought Rostov now ... “And is it worth thinking and talking about it at such a moment as now? In a moment of such a feeling of love, delight and selflessness, what do all our quarrels and insults mean!? I love everyone, I forgive everyone now, ”thought Rostov.

The action takes place in the 1850s. Wagons are driving along the Texas prairie - this is the ruined planter Woodley Poindexter moving from Louisiana to Texas. With him are son Henry, daughter Louise, and nephew, retired Captain Cassius Calhoun. Suddenly they lose track - in front of them is a scorched prairie. The way to the caravan is shown by a young rider in a Mexican costume. The caravan continues to move, but soon the rider appears again, this time to save the settlers from the hurricane. He says his name is Maurice Gerald, or Maurice Mustanger, because he is a hunter of wild horses. Louise falls in love with him at first sight.

Soon there will be a housewarming dinner at the Casa del Corvo, where the Poindexters have taken up residence. In the midst of the celebration, Maurice the Mustanger appears with a herd of horses, which he caught on Poindexter's order. Among them, a mustang of rare speckled coloration stands out. Poindexter offers a large sum for him, but the mustanger refuses the money and presents the mustang as a gift to Louise.

After some time, the commandant of Fort Inge, located near Casa del Corvo, arranges a return reception - a picnic on the prairie, during which hunting for mustangs is supposed. Maurice is the guide. As soon as the picnic participants settle down at a halt, a herd of wild mares appears, and a speckled mare, galloping after them, takes Louise to the prairie. Maurice is afraid that the speckled, having caught up with her herd, will not try to get rid of the rider, and rushes in pursuit. Soon he catches up with the girl, but they face a new danger - a herd of wild stallions jumps on them, extremely aggressive at this time of the year. Maurice and Louise have to flee, but they finally get rid of the pursuit only when the mustanger kills the leader with a well-aimed shot.

The heroes are left alone, and Maurice invites Louise to his hut. The girl is pleasantly surprised to see books and other little things there, testifying to the education of the owner.

Meanwhile, Cassius Calhoun, burning with jealousy, follows in the footsteps of Maurice and Louise and eventually meets them. They slowly ride side by side, and jealousy flares up in him with renewed vigor.

In the evening of the same day, men drink in the bar of the only hotel in the village "On a Halt", which is kept by the German Franz Oberdofer. Calhoun proposes a toast that is insulting to Irishman Maurice Gerald and pushes him in the process. In response, he throws a glass of whiskey in Calhoun's face. It is clear to everyone that the quarrel will end in a shootout.

Indeed, right there, in the bar, there is a duel. Both members are wounded, but the mustanger still manages to put a gun to Calhoun's temple. He is forced to apologize.

Because of their injuries, Calhoun and Maurice the mustanger must stay in bed, but Calhoun is surrounded by care, and the mustanger languishes in a squalid inn. But soon baskets of provisions begin to arrive at him - these are gifts from Isidora Covarubio de Los Llanos, who he once saved from the hands of drunken Indians and fell in love with him. This becomes known to Louise, and, tormented by jealousy, she arranges a meeting with the mustanger. During the meeting, a declaration of love takes place between them.

When Louise once again goes for a horseback ride, her father forbids her to leave on the pretext that the Comanches are on the warpath. The girl surprisingly easily agrees and begins to get involved in archery - with the help of arrows, she exchanges letters with Maurice the Mustanger.

The exchange of letters is followed by secret nightly meetings in the courtyard of the estate. Cassius Calhoun becomes a witness of one of these meetings, who wants to use this as an excuse to deal with the mustanger at the hands of Henry Poindexter. There is a quarrel between Henry and Maurice, but Louise persuades her brother to catch up with the mustanger and apologize to him.

Enraged, Calhoun tries to set a certain Miguel Diaz on Maurice, who has his own scores with the Irish because of Isidora, but he turns out to be dead drunk. Then Calhoun himself rides after Maurice and Henry.

The next day, it turns out that Henry is missing. Suddenly, his horse appears at the gate of the estate with traces of gore. It is suspected that the young man was attacked by the Comanches. Fort officers and planters gather to search.

Suddenly, the owner of the inn appears. He says that the mustanger paid his bill the night before and moved out. Soon Henry Poindexter appeared at the hotel. Finding out in which direction the mustanger left, he galloped after him.

The search party is driving along a forest clearing, when suddenly, against the backdrop of the setting sun, a headless horseman appears before the eyes of the audience. The detachment tries to follow in his footsteps, but the tracks are lost in the "chalk prairie". It was decided to postpone the search until the morning, and the major, commandant of the fort, reports the evidence found by the tracker Spangler, excluding the involvement of the Indians. Suspicion of the murder falls on Maurice Gerald, and everyone decides to go to his hut in the morning.

At this time, the hunter Zebulon (Zeb) Stump, a friend of Maurice, comes to Casa del Corvo. Louise recounts to him the rumors about her brother's death and the involvement of Maurice Gerald in it. At her request, the hunter goes to the mustanger to save him from being lynched.

When the hunter is in the hut, the dog Tara comes running with Maurice's calling card tied to his collar, It says in blood where he can be found. Zeb Stump shows up just in time to save an injured friend from a jaguar. Meanwhile, Louise sees a rider who looks like Maurice from the roof of the manor. After galloping after him, she finds Isidora's note to Maurice in the forest. Jealousy flares up in the girl, and she decides, contrary to decency, to go to her lover to check her suspicions. In the mustanger's hut, she meets Isidora. At the sight of a rival, she leaves the hut.

Thanks to Isidora, the search party easily finds the home of the mustanger, in which Woodley Poindexter discovers his daughter. He sends her home. And just in time, since the assembled are already ready to lynch the alleged killer, thanks in large part to the false testimony of Calhoun. She manages to delay the execution for a while, but passions flare up with renewed vigor, and the unconscious mustanger is again ready to be pulled up on the bough. This time, Zeb Stump saves him, demanding a fair trial. Maurice Gerald is taken to the guardhouse at Fort Inge.

Zeb Stump follows in the footsteps of the actors in the drama. During the search, he manages to see the headless horseman at close range, and he is convinced that this is Henry Poindexter.

In anticipation of the trial, Calhoun asks his uncle for the hand of Louise - he is his debtor and is unlikely to be able to refuse. But Louise doesn't want to hear about it. Then, at the trial, Calhoun talks about her secret meeting with the mustanger and about the quarrel between the latter and Henry. Louise is forced to admit that this is so.

From the story of Maurice at the trial, it becomes known that after a quarrel, they met with Henry in the forest, reconciled and, as a sign of friendship, exchanged capes and hats. Henry left, and Maurice decided to spend the night in the forest. Suddenly he was awakened by a shot, but he did not attach any importance to it and fell asleep again, and in the morning he found the corpse of Henry with his head cut off. To deliver him to his relatives, the corpse had to be saddled by a mustang belonging to Maurice, since Henry's horse did not want to carry this gloomy burden. The mustanger himself mounted Henry's horse, but did not pick up the reins, so he could not control him when he carried. As a result of a frantic ride, the mustanger hit his head on a bough and flew off his horse.

Just then, Zeb Stump appears, bringing Calhoun and the Headless Horseman with him. He saw Calhoun try to capture the rider to get rid of the evidence, and makes it clear in court that Calhoun is the killer. The evidence is a bullet extracted from the corpse with Calhoun's initials and a letter addressed to him, which he used as a wad. Convicted Calhoun tries to run, but Maurice the mustanger catches him.

Calhoun confesses to the murder, which he committed by mistake: he aimed at the mustanger, not knowing that he had switched clothes with his cousin. But before hearing the verdict, Calhoun shoots the mustanger, who is saved from death by a medallion donated by Louise. In desperation, Calhoun puts a bullet in his forehead.

It immediately turns out that Maurice Gerald is the owner of a large fortune. He marries Louise and redeems the heir of Calhoun (it turns out that he had a son) Casa del Corvo. With them, the servant Felim O'Neil and Zeb Stump live happily, supplying game to the table. Ten years later, Maurice and Louise already have six children.

Shortly after the wedding of Maurice and Louise, Miguel Diaz kills Isidora out of jealousy, for which he is hanged on the first bitch.

Year of publication of the book: 1865

Mine Reed's The Headless Horseman needs no introduction. More than one generation in our country has grown up on this work. It is rightfully considered one of the most famous works of Mine Reed. Based on the book, a film was made, and the work itself was reprinted more than once and even included in the curriculum.

Books "Headless Horseman" summary

In Mine Reed's novel "The Headless Horseman" you can read about the events that unfolded in the 1850s in Texas. A ruined planter from Louisiana - Woodley Poindexter, along with his son - Henry, daughter - Louise and nephew - Cassius Calhoun go to Casa del Corvo. But on their way they meet a scorched prairie and because of this they go astray. To help them come the beater of wild horses - mustanger Maurice or Maurice Gerald. He shows them the way, and then saves them again by warning them of an impending hurricane.

Shortly after arriving at Casa del Corvo, Woodley decides to organize a reception. His goal is to get to know the local elite. Just in time for this reception, Maurice drives a herd of wild horses. Especially in it, the mustang of speckled coloring stands out. They immediately offer a lot of money for it, but Maurice gives it to Louise. Soon the commandant of Fort Inge arranges a return reception. It is planned to hunt for mustangs. Just during a halt, a herd of wild mustangs flies by not far from the parking lot. Louise's horse, along with the owner, rushes after him. Maurice, who acted as a guide at this reception, barely manages to catch up with the girl in order to save aggressive stallions from the herd. By this time they have ridden far enough from the main group and Maurice invites Louise to rest in his hut. The girl is pleasantly surprised by the mustanger's dwelling and amazed by the presence of books here.

Further, in the summary of “The Headless Horseman” by Mine Reed, you can read about how Calhoun finds our couple. He has long wanted to marry Louise and therefore her seclusion with Maurice kindles jealousy in him. He decides to kill the mustanger. That same evening, in the bar "On a Halt", he makes a toast unpleasant for the Irishman Maurice and pushes him. In retaliation, the mustanger pours whiskey in his face. As a result, a shootout occurs, from which Maurice, although wounded, emerges victorious. And putting a revolver to Calhoun's temple makes him apologize.

While Maurice is lying down in a cheap hotel room, baskets of provisions are sent to him. This is a gift from Isidora Covarubio de Los Llanos, whom he once saved and who is in love with him. This makes Louise jealous and sets up a chance meeting. During it, young people confess their love to each other. After that, they first communicate by means of "air mail", sending each other letters along with arrows, and then begin to secretly meet in the garden. Calhoun becomes a witness of one of these meetings. Not daring to kill Maurice on her own, she decides to persuade Henry. Henry and Maurice have a litter. Mustanger leaves. And the girl persuades her brother to catch up with him and apologize. Calhoun sees that this plan of his has collapsed. He already had an agreement with Miguel Diaz that he would kill Maurice. But today he's dead drunk. So Calhoun goes after Maurice himself.

Further in Mine Reid's book The Headless Horseman, you can read that Henry did not appear at home the next morning. Well, when his horse comes to the Poindexters' house with traces of blood on its back, it becomes clear that something irreparable has happened. A search party is assembled and sent to the prairie. In the distance, they discover a headless horseman, but they fail to catch up with the horse. All evidence points to the fact that the Indians were not involved in this, but the killer Maurice. Therefore, the commandant of the fort gives the order to advance to Maurice's hut the next morning.

Meanwhile, Maurice's friend Zeb Stump arrives in Casa del Corvo. From Louise, he learns about what happened and goes to Maurice's house. Here, as in him, the mustanger dog comes to the rescue. She has a note in blood on her collar, which indicates the location of the owner. Zeb makes it just in time to save him from the jaguar. But Maurice is unconscious. Meanwhile, Louise sees a rider who looks very much like Maurice. She starts after him. In the forest, she finds Isidora's note to Maurice. The girl goes to the mustanger's hut and finds her rival there. Seeing her, Isidora leaves. But it doesn't go away for long. She soon returns with a search party. Zeb and Louise barely manage to get a fair trial for Maurice, because initially they wanted to kill him right on the spot.

Further in the novel "The Headless Horseman" by Mine Reed, you can read about how Zeb goes after the headless horseman. Calhoun asks for Louise's hand in marriage, but she doesn't want to hear anything about the wedding. And the next day, the court is going to. Calhoun talks about the meeting between Louise and the Mustanger and about Maurice and Henry's litter. But by this time, Maurice regains consciousness and tells his story. Henry caught up with him, and they faced off. As a sign of friendship, they exchanged clothes and hats. And Henry went home. Maurice soon heard the shot, but ignored it. The next morning, he found Henry's corpse. He had his head cut off. Henry's horse did not want to carry the dead rider, so the mustanger put him on his horse. He himself sat on Henry's horse. Since he held the horse with the burden, he did not hold his own by the reins. And when she suffered, he could not do anything. As a result, he hit a branch at full gallop and for a long time did not remember anything. Zeb confirms these words. Who shows up just in time, along with the Headless Horseman and Calhoun. The last one he caught when he was trying to get rid of the evidence. Namely, to get a bullet from a corpse with your initials. Calhoun tries to run, but Maurice catches him. The main anti-hero of the book "The Headless Horseman" has nothing left to do but admit the murder by mistake. He thought he was shooting at Maurice.

It soon turns out that Maurice is the heir to a large fortune. He buys Casa del Corvo, marries Luisa, and ten years later this married couple boasts as many as six children. Well, Isidora dies from the jealous hand of Miguel Diaz, who is hanged for this on the nearest bitch.

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Starts when he hears the clatter of horse hooves.

But he does not leave his green bed, he does not even get on his feet. These expanses do not belong to him alone - wild steppe horses also graze here at night. He only slightly raises his head—his horns are shown above the tall grass—and listens: will the sound be repeated?

The clatter of hooves is heard again, but now it sounds different. You can hear the sound of metal, the impact of steel on stone.

This sound, so alarming for the deer, causes a rapid change in his behavior. He quickly jumps up and rushes across the prairie; but soon he stops and looks back, wondering: who disturbed his sleep?

In the clear moonlight of the southern night, the deer recognizes its worst enemy - man. A man approaches on horseback.

Seized by instinctive fear, the deer is ready to run again, but something in the guise of a rider - something unnatural - chains him to the place.

Shivering, he almost sits on his hind legs, turns his head back and continues to stare, fear and bewilderment reflected in his large brown eyes.

What made the deer stare at the strange figure for so long?

Horse? But this is an ordinary horse, saddled, bridled - there is nothing in it that could cause surprise or alarm. Maybe the rider scared the deer? Yes, it is he who scares and makes you wonder - there is something ugly, creepy in his appearance.

Heavenly powers! The rider has no head!

This is obvious even to an unintelligent animal. For another minute, the deer stares with confused eyes, as if trying to understand: what kind of unprecedented monster is this? But now, terrified, the deer runs again. He does not stop until he swims across Leona and a turbulent stream separates him from the terrible rider.

Paying no attention to the frightened deer, as if not even noticing its presence, the headless horseman continues on his way.

He, too, is heading towards the river, but he does not seem to be in a hurry, but moves with a slow, calm, almost ceremonial step.

As if absorbed in his thoughts, the rider lowered the reins, and his horse from time to time nibbles the grass. Neither by voice nor by movement does he urge her on, when, frightened by the barking of coyotes, she suddenly throws up her head and, snoring, stops.

It seems that he is in the grip of some deep feelings and small incidents cannot bring him out of his reverie. He does not betray his secret with a single sound. A frightened deer, a horse, a wolf and a midnight moon are the only witnesses to his silent thoughts.

A serape is thrown over the shoulders of the rider, which, with a gust of wind, rises and reveals part of his figure; on his feet he wears leggings made of jaguar skin. Protected from the dampness of the night and the tropical downpours, he rides on, silent as the stars twinkling above him, carefree as the cicadas chirping in the grass, like the night breeze playing with the folds of his clothes.

Finally, something seemed to bring the rider out of his thoughts - his horse quickened his pace. Here the horse shook his head and neighed joyfully - with an outstretched neck and flaring nostrils, he runs forward at a trot and soon already gallops: the proximity of the river - that's what made the horse rush faster.

He does not stop until he is immersed in a transparent stream so that the water reaches the rider's knees. The horse drinks greedily; after quenching his thirst, he crosses the river and climbs the steep bank at a fast trot.

At the top, the headless horseman stops, as if waiting for the horse to shake off the water. There is a clang of harness and stirrups - like thunder rumbled in a white cloud of steam.

From this halo emerges the headless horseman; he continues on his way again.

Apparently, driven by the spurs and guided by the hand of the rider, the horse no longer goes astray, but runs confidently forward, as if along a familiar path.

Ahead, to the very horizon, the treeless expanses of the savannah stretch. On the azure sky, the silhouette of a mysterious figure, similar to a damaged statue of a centaur, looms; it gradually recedes until it disappears altogether in the mysterious twilight of the moonlight.

The midday sun shines brightly from a cloudless azure sky over the vast Texas plain about a hundred miles south of the old Spanish city of San Antonio de Bejar. In the golden rays, objects unusual for the wild prairie loom - they speak of the presence of people where there are no signs of human habitation.

Even at a great distance you can see that they are wagons; above each is a semicircular top made of snow-white linen.

There are ten of them - too few for a trade caravan or government convoy. Most likely, they belong to some settler who landed on the seashore and is now heading to one of the new villages on the Leon River.

Stretched out in a long line, the wagons crawl across the savannah so slowly that their movement is almost imperceptible, and only by their mutual position in a long chain of trains can one guess about it. Dark silhouettes between the wagons indicate that they are harnessed; and the antelope running away in fright and the curlew flying up with a cry give out that the convoy is moving. Both the beast and the bird are perplexed: what kind of strange monsters have invaded their wild possessions?

Besides, there is no movement on the whole prairie, neither a flying bird nor a running beast. In this sultry midday hour, all life on the prairie freezes or hides in the shade. And only a man, instigated by ambition or greed, violates the laws of tropical nature and defies the scorching sun.

So the owner of the convoy, despite the exhausting midday heat, continues on his way.

Each wagon is drawn by eight strong mules. They carry a large amount of food, expensive, one might even say - luxurious, furniture, black slaves and their children; black slaves walk alongside the convoy, and some wearily trudge behind, barely stepping with their wounded bare feet. Ahead is a light carriage drawn by well-groomed Kentucky mules; on her box a black coachman in livery languishes in the heat. Everything suggests that this is not a poor settler from the northern states looking for a new homeland, but a wealthy southerner who has already acquired the estate and is going there with his family, property and slaves.

Indeed, the wagon train belongs to a planter who landed with his family at Indianola, on the shores of Matagorda Bay, and is now crossing the prairie, heading for his new possessions.

Among the riders accompanying the train, as always, the planter himself rides in front, Woodley Poindexter - a tall, thin man of about fifty, with a pale, sickly yellowish face and with a proudly severe bearing. He is dressed simply but richly. He wears a loose-fitting alpaca caftan, a black satin vest, and nanke knickers. In the neckline of the waistcoat, a shirt made of the thinnest linen is visible, intercepted at the collar with a black ribbon. On the feet, threaded into stirrups, are shoes made of soft tanned leather. A wide-brimmed straw hat casts a shadow over the planter's face.

Two riders ride next to him, one on the right, the other on the left: this is a young man of about twenty and a young man six or seven years older.

The first is the son of Poindexter. The open, cheerful face of the young man is not at all like the stern face of his father and the gloomy physiognomy of the third rider - his cousin.

The young man is wearing a French blouse made of sky blue cotton fabric, pantaloons of the same material; this suit - the most suitable for the southern climate - is very suitable for a young man, as well as a white panama.

His cousin, a retired volunteer officer, is dressed in a military uniform made of dark blue cloth and has a cloth cap on his head.

The events of the novel take place in the distant 50s of the eighteenth century in the vastness of America. But the exciting plot, fascinating travels and the author's style allow you to break away from modern reality and completely immerse yourself in reading the novel by Mine Reed. Or maybe it's just a classic - a classic of the genre, a classic of style, a classic of romance.

In one bibliographic article about the author of the novel "The Headless Horseman" I came across an extremely accurate expression that characterizes the writer's work - romantic exoticism. Exactly so, because the mysterious and terrible events that take place in the novel and do not let the reader go are still surrounded by romantic and love exoticism. Mine Reed himself lived a bright life full of adventures, worked as a teacher and reporter, traded with the Indians, took part in the war between the United States and Mexico, married a fifteen-year-old beauty at the age of 33, participated in revolutions and wandered around the world in search of inspiration, had a firm civic position and boldly declared it, but died of a nervous and physical disorder. The writer gained fame during his lifetime and remained in history as one of the most popular authors of adventure novels.

Let's return to the novel "The Headless Horseman". The storyline is built according to the laws of the genre: on the expanses of a scorched prairie, the family of a wealthy planter Woodley Poindexter meets Maurice Gerald. The circumstances were such that the planter's family got lost when moving to a new estate, and the modest mustanger turned out to be their savior. It is clear that the young daughter Louise falls in love with the hero at first sight, the head of the family is imbued with respect and gratitude for him, and Cassius Calhoun - Woodley's nephew and Louise's cousin - immediately looks at the rival's savior. Further events develop rapidly: the heroes are seized by the desire to catch up, kill, restore justice, take revenge, love and be loved.

I warn you: The Headless Horseman is not a fairy tale for children, but a beautiful and bright work for readers in the romantic age of 12 to 99 years. On the pages of the novel, gentle hugs and ardent confessions are replaced by pictures of insidious murders and the sudden appearance of a very real headless horseman. The novel translated into Russian by Alla Makarova is easy to read, some lines remain in memory forever:

“... Ahead, to the very horizon, the boundless expanses of the savannah stretch. On the azure sky, the silhouette of a mysterious figure, similar to a damaged statue of a centaur, looms; it gradually recedes until it completely disappears in the mysterious twilight of moonlight ... "

I read somewhere that Mine Reed, possessing a violent fantasy and unique imagination, even changed some facts of his biography, which later completely confused his bibliographers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the novel contains such vivid, juicy, colorful descriptions of plot events. History claims that in difficult times, it was the publication of the novel The Headless Horseman that saved Reed from imminent bankruptcy. After the death of the writer, the following lines appeared in the obituary of a British publication:

"... The youth of England and America had no better friend than Captain Mine Reid."

My first reading of the book took place during the impressionable period of adolescence. The novel caused a storm of emotions, even tears of grief and joy. Most recently, I re-read The Horseman and was surprised to find that I was captured by the familiar plot and content with renewed vigor. My impressions have not changed at all, on the contrary, I admire the author and the characters even more strongly. Of course, the work sometimes seems naive, and the actions of the heroes of the novel are too pretentious or predictable. But such details are quite compensated by the overall impression of the novel. If we compare the influence of classic adventure novels by different authors, I would dare to put the works of Mine Reed and Jack London side by side.