Summary of the work The Headless Horseman. Novel “The Headless Horseman. The most famous novel

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

The novel takes place in the fifties of the 19th century in the border areas of Texas. Wealthy planter Woodley Poindexter and his family of son, daughter and nephew move from Louisiana to their new home, Casa del Corvo.

Lost on a scorched plain on the way to their new hacienda, the Poindexter family meets Maurice Gerald, a mustanger living near the military fort of Inge, but a native of northern Ireland. Maurice immediately made an impression on all family members, but each in his own way. Proud Woodley treated his savior with respect, his son Henry almost immediately fell in love with him with brotherly love, the young planter's sister Louise immediately fell in love with the mustanger, even despite his modest social status.

Old man Poindexter's nephew, retired captain Cassius Colhoun, immediately hated the new hero, partly because he wanted to marry Louise himself, and partly because of his cowardice and arrogance.

Shortly after the Poindexters settle in Casa del Corvo, the planter throws a large reception to celebrate their successful move and closer acquaintance with the elite of Texas. Maurice Gerald is also present at this reception, who has undertaken 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 planter's daughter, further inciting love in her heart and hatred in the soul of her cousin. Now he firmly decides to remove the young mustanger from his path. Having conceived an insidious plan to kill Maurice, he decides to carry it out the next evening, in a bar in the village that formed near Fort Inge. He allegedly accidentally pushed and doused the Irishman, who responded in kind. The resulting quarrel ends in a duel. Colhoun clearly underestimated his opponent, which is what he paid for, surviving only thanks to the generosity of Maurice. Thus, having won this battle, the mustanger won the respect of local residents and officers of the fort, and also made the retired captain panicky afraid of him.

Colhoun does not deviate 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, happily agrees to this matter.

At the same time, after Maurice’s recovery, he and Louise began to correspond secretly using the so-called. “air mail”, and then, unable to bear the long separation, meet in the garden of Casa del Corvo. After their last meeting, a tragic event occurred. Colhoun finds Maurice and Louise in the garden and persuades Louise's brother to kill the mustanger. Thanks partly to Louise's intercession and partly to Henry's prudence, Maurice manages to escape unharmed. 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 goes after the mustanger. Following Henry, his cousin Cassius also leaves, but for a different purpose: he knows that Maurice is leaving for Ireland tomorrow, 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 has been killed. A detachment of armed planters and soldiers is sent to search for the body and the killer, who achieve some success in their search and find evidence of the young man’s death. During their search, this party encounters a terrifying headless horseman. Having not found a reasonable answer to what it could be, the detachment goes to spend the night.

That same night, Diaz and his accomplices, disguised as Indians, invade Maurice's home at 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 house, but the same headless horseman. Scared 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 along with his servant Phelim, 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 turned out to be very ill, for what reason is unknown. The old hunter Stump and the mustanger's servant Felim take the young man to their house, where a search party finds him. Having found Henry's clothes in his hut, the regulators decide to arrange a lynching on the spot. But thanks to the intervention of Zeb Stump, as well as Indian things in Maurice's hut, indicating 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 his 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. Having won three extra days of trial delay from the major, Zeb Stump goes to the prairie, where he is determined to find evidence of his friend’s innocence. And he finds them, and now he knows exactly who the real killer is and what the mysterious headless horseman is. He reports everything to the commandant of the fort, and everyone awaits trial.

Having woken up from his stupor, Maurice gives testimony at the trial, which forces many to change their minds regarding the mustanger’s guilt in this crime. Things change even more dramatically when people see a headless horseman approaching the judgment site.

This is where this monstrous secret is revealed. All this time, the headless horseman was Henry Poindexter. And Colhoun killed him. This became known when it was possible to remove from Henry's body a bullet marked with the initials of Cassius Colhoun "C. K.K" ("Captain Cassius Colquhoun"). From Maurice's testimony, it turned out that when they met, Henry and Maurice, according to the ancient 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 arrived there. Seeing a man in Mexican clothing, he mistook his brother for Maurice and shot him with a gun, and then cut off the head of the corpse. Maurice, who had previously lived among the Comanches, became acquainted with their custom of delivering warriors killed in battle on their war horses, mounted Henry’s body on his horse, and tied his head to the pommel of the saddle. Henry himself mounted Henry’s horse, but, not knowing how to control someone else’s horse, he turned it towards the terrible rider. The horse was frightened by the terrible sight and bolted. Maurice hit his head on a thick tree branch, fell from his horse and received a severe concussion. This was the reason for his sudden illness. And the horse with the headless corpse wandered around the prairies for a long time until it ended up at the final trial.

The main characters of "The Headless Horseman"

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 is Louise's father, a planter.
Cassius Colquhoun - Woodley's nephew, a retired military man with a scandalous reputation, loves Louise, shot himself at the final trial.
Henry Poindexter - Louise's brother, is killed and beheaded by his cousin, who mistakes 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, a 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 - the officer who delayed Maurice's trial for three days.
Spangler is a tracker who 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.
Phelim 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 of them who believed in Maurice's innocence.
Horsemen, regulars, people at trial, Diaz's accomplices, servants.
Oberdofer - innkeeper

The novel "The Headless Horseman" by Myne Reid is based on the author's real adventures in America. The work was completed in 1865. Then it began to be published in the form of a series of monthly issues. A year later, Richard Bentley's publishing house released a full-fledged single edition of The Headless Horseman. IN summary in Russian the book was published in translation by A. I. Makarova. Although the plot is presented in abbreviation, this does not change the essence and main idea of the novel.

Main and secondary characters

There are two main characters in the novel, but there are also a number of minor ones who played an important role in the development of the plot. The main characters are:

Maurice Gerald is a mustanger with little income in the USA;
Louise Poindexter is the main character's lover, a very beautiful girl.

But not only the main characters are important in the novel. There are minor characters who rarely appear on the pages of the book, but play a noticeable role. These include:

father of Louise Woodley Poindexter;
retired captain Cassius Colquhoun - Woodley's nephew and Louise's admirer;
Henry Pointdexter is Louise's brother, whose head was cut off; in the story, he is the headless horseman;
Phelim is Maurice's faithful servant;
Isidora de Los Llanos is a Mexican woman who is madly in love with Maurice;
Zeb Stump is Maurice's friend who managed to prove his innocence.

Abridged retelling

A brief description of the novel will allow schoolchildren and students to get acquainted with the plot without reading the entire work. The shortened version will help in writing essays and reports about this book.

The beginning of the novel

Ten wagons slowly pull across the scorched, deserted prairie. They transport food, expensive furniture and black slaves. This is the caravan of the bankrupt planter Woodley Poindexter, moving to Texas. Together with Woodley, his daughter Louise, son Henry and nephew Cassius Colquhoun went on a long journey.

Due to the lack of a guide, the travelers got lost in the prairies and did not know where to go next. They were rescued by a “beautifully built, regular-featured” young man, Maurice Gerald. He was engaged in catching and training wild horses and was nicknamed Maurice the Mustanger. A handsome and courteous guy was able to win the sympathy of Louise Poindexter.

Conflict between Maurice and Cassius

The plot of the novel takes place on the territory of the Casa del Corvo estate, where the Poindexter family settled. It was located near Fort Inge next to the river.

On the occasion of the housewarming, the head of the family organized a dinner party, to which the savior Maurice was invited. He brought in a herd of wild horses at the request of the planter Poindexter. The most remarkable thing was a mare of unusual color. She was dark chocolate brown with many white spots scattered evenly over her beautiful slender body.

Guests cannot take their eyes off the stately beauty, but Maurice Gerald refuses to sell her. He presents the horse as a gift to Louise, thereby igniting the flame of love in her heart even more. Because of this act, Cassius begins to hate him.

Louise's cousin, unrequitedly in love with the girl, decides to remove his rival. He wanted to carry out his insidious plan that same evening in a bar near Fort Inge.

Cassius pushed the Irishman and accidentally spilled whiskey on him. Amid the dispute, a scuffle broke out, which ended in a duel. Louise's cousin did not wield the blade masterfully, and therefore it was only a miracle that he survived. But the mustanger’s generosity did not lead to gratitude from the retired captain, but to the fact that Colhoun began to fear Maurice and hate him even more.

The appearance of the headless horseman

Cassius does not give up his dream of getting rid of the mustanger. But now he decides to do it with the hands of another person. His choice falls on fellow mustanger Miguel Diaz, who decides to arrange the matter in such a way that suspicion does not fall on either him or the customer. The outbreak of war between the Indians and local residents was to his advantage.

Wounded after a skirmish with Colquhoun Maurice is recovering and begins to communicate with the beautiful and gentle Louise by exchanging letters. But this is not enough for the young people; they meet in the garden of the hacienda (estate) Casa del Corvo. Cassius Colhoun witnesses the meeting and tells Louise's brother Henry about it. He decides to kill the mustanger, who allegedly encroached on his sister’s honor.

Louise convinces her brother of Gerald's innocence, so he goes after the horseman to ask for his forgiveness. Following him is Cassius, who decided to kill the mustanger at night without unnecessary witnesses.

In the morning, the Poindexter family did not wait for Henry for breakfast. The young man was also not in the house. A servant found his horse on the prairie, which had no rider, and was stained with blood. The inconsolable father gathers planters and soldiers to search for his son, and they find evidence of Henry’s death. In the evening, the search party encounters a headless horseman.

Gerald faces trial

That same night, Diaz, hired by Cassius, goes to the hut where Maurice lived. He and the members of his squad dress up as Indians and wait for the owner in the house. After some time, someone approached the hut, but it was not Gerald, but a headless man on a horse. This detachment became the second to see the terrible horseman.

At the same time, Maurice's friend Zebulon Stump and servant Phelim are in the mustanger's house, afraid to go out and fall into the hands of the false Indians. In the morning they receive a letter from Gerald in which he asked them to come to the specified place.

The letter was brought by his dog Tara. The friends immediately set off and barely managed to save the young man from the jaguar that attacked him. Maurice was very ill, he was crippled by an unknown illness. A friend and servant take the mustanger home, where he is discovered by a search party.

Henry's bloody clothes are found in Gerald's hut, after which the squad decides to arrange a lynching on the spot. But Stump manages to convince the angry planters to postpone the trial. This was facilitated by other evidence found in the house - Comanche clothing.

Maurice continues to be held responsible for the death of Henry Poindexter. He was sent to the guardhouse at Fort Inge to await trial. The mustanger's friends and lover are confident that he is innocent. They were able to get the trial to be postponed for another three days. Stump went to the prairie to look for evidence of Gerald's innocence. There he meets the headless horseman, finds confirmation of his friend's innocence and establishes the true culprit of Henry's death. Returning to the city, he reports the terrible discovery to the commander of the fort.

Maurice is cured of his illness and is brought to court for sentencing. At the meeting, he gives testimony that makes many change their minds about his guilt. More more people They were convinced that they were wrong when they saw a horseman approaching the courthouse.

Plot resolution

Opened terrible secret- The headless horseman is Henry Poindexter. Having met Maurice, he exchanged clothes with him according to an ancient Indian ritual as a sign of reconciliation. Cassius, riding behind them, saw a man in Mexican clothing and shot him. After that, he cut off his head. This was confirmed by a bullet removed from the body of a dead man with the initials “K.K.K.” - Captain Cassius Colquhoun.

Maurice, knowing the customs of the Indians of those places, decided to deliver the guy’s corpse in the traditional way of warriors. He put him on a war horse and tied his head to the pommel of the saddle. He himself mounted his stallion, but the horse was frightened by the smell of blood and rushed off. As a result, Gerald hit a thick branch and received a concussion, which became the cause of his ill health.

Cassius Colhoun was accused of murder and sentenced to death. He decided to avoid death and hide on the prairie, but Maurice's faithful friends caught up with him. At the end of the trial, Cassius shoots Maurice with a pistol that came from nowhere. Young man saves the medallion that Louise gave him. After this, Colquhoun shot himself.

Louise and Gerald got married. Mustang received a rich inheritance in Ireland, helped the Poindexters buy out the hacienda and pay off all their debts.

Having read “The Horseman…” briefly on Briefly or other resources where abbreviated versions are published famous works, you can avoid missing the essence of the novel without reading it completely. Students can write down the retelling in reader's diary and complete your summer reading plan.

Headless horseman

The action takes place in the 1850s. Vans are driving across the Texas prairie - it is the bankrupt planter Woodley Poindexter who is moving from Louisiana to Texas. His son Henry, daughter Louise and nephew, retired captain Cassius Colhoun, are traveling with him. Suddenly they lose track - in front of them is a scorched prairie. A young horseman in a Mexican costume shows the way to the caravan. The caravan continues moving, but soon the rider appears again, this time to save the displaced from the hurricane. He says his name is Maurice Gerald, or Maurice the Mustanger, because he is a wild horse hunter. Louise falls in love with him at first sight.

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

Soon he catches up with the girl, but they face a new danger - a herd of wild stallions, extremely aggressive at this time of year, is galloping towards them. 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 that testify to the owner’s education.

Meanwhile, Cassius Colquhoun, burning with jealousy, follows in the footsteps of Maurice and Louise and eventually meets them. They drive slowly next to each other, and jealousy flares up in him with renewed vigor.

That evening, the men are drinking in the bar of the only hotel in the village, “On Privale,” which is run by the German Franz Oberdofer. Colquhoun proposes a toast that is insulting to the Irishman Maurice Gerald and pushes him in the process. In response, he throws a glass of whiskey in Colhoun's face. It is clear to everyone that the quarrel will end in a shootout.

Indeed, right there, in the bar, a duel takes place. Both participants are wounded, but the mustanger still manages to put a gun to Colhoun's head. He is forced to apologize.

Because of their wounds, Colhoun and Maurice the mustanger must remain on bed rest, but Colhoun is surrounded by care, and the mustanger languishes in a squalid hotel. But soon baskets of provisions begin to arrive to him - these are gifts from Isidora Covarubio de Los Llanos, whom he once saved from the hands of drunken Indians and who was in love with him. Louise becomes aware of this, and, tormented by jealousy, she arranges a meeting with the mustanger. During the meeting, a declaration of love occurs between them.

When Louise once again gets ready to go horseback riding, her father forbids her to go 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 night meetings in the courtyard of the estate. One of these meetings is witnessed by Cassius Colquhoun, who wants to use this as an excuse to deal with the mustanger at the hands of Henry Poindexter. A quarrel occurs between Henry and Maurice, but Louise persuades her brother to catch up with the mustanger and apologize to him.

The enraged Colhoun tries to set a certain Miguel Diaz against Maurice, who has his own scores to settle with the Irishman because of Isidora, but he turns out to be dead drunk. Then Colquhoun himself goes after Maurice and Henry.

The next day it turns out that Henry has disappeared. Suddenly, his horse with traces of dried blood appears at the gates of the estate. They suspect that the young man was attacked by Comanches. Fort officers and planters gather to search.

Suddenly the owner of the hotel appears. He says that the night before the mustanger paid the bill and moved out. Soon Henry Poindexter appeared at the hotel. Having found out in which direction the mustanger had gone, he galloped after it.

The search party is riding along a forest clearing, when suddenly, against the backdrop of the setting sun, a headless horseman appears to the eyes of those gathered. The squad 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, the commandant of the fort, reports on the evidence found by the ranger Spangler that excludes the involvement of the Indians. Suspicion of 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 tells him rumors about her brother's death and Maurice Gerald's involvement in it. At her request, the hunter goes to the mustanger to save him from lynching.

When the hunter finds himself in the hut, the dog Tara comes running with Maurice's business card tied to his collar. It is written there in blood where he can be found. Zeb Stump arrives just in time to save his injured friend from a jaguar. Meanwhile, Louise sees a horseman resembling Maurice from the roof of the estate. Having galloped after him, she finds a note from Isidora 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. When she sees her rival, she leaves the hut.

Thanks to Isidora, the search party easily finds the mustanger's home, where Woodley Poindexter discovers his daughter. He sends her home. And just in time, since those gathered are already ready to lynch the alleged murderer, mainly thanks to Colhoun’s false testimony. She manages to postpone the execution for a while, but passions flare up with renewed vigor, and the unconscious mustanger is again ready to be strung up on a branch. This time he is saved by Zeb Stump, who demands a fair trial. Maurice Gerald is taken to the guardhouse at Fort Inge.

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

While awaiting trial, Colhoun asks his uncle for Louise's hand - 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, Colhoun talks about her secret meeting with the mustanger and about the latter’s quarrel with Henry. Louise is forced to admit that this is true.

From Maurice's story at the trial, it becomes known that after a quarrel, they met Henry in the forest, made peace and exchanged capes and hats as a sign of friendship. 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 discovered Henry’s corpse with his head cut off. To deliver it to his relatives, the corpse had to be placed in the saddle of a mustang that belonged to Maurice, since Henry’s horse did not want to carry this gloomy burden. The mustanger himself mounted Henry's horse, but did not take the reins in his hands, so he could not control him when he bolted. As a result of a frenzied gallop, the mustanger hit his head on a branch and flew off his horse.

At this moment, Zeb Stump appears, leading Colquhoun and the Headless Horseman with him. He saw how Colhoun tried to catch the horseman to get rid of evidence, and makes it clear at the trial that Colhoun is the killer. The evidence is a bullet with Colhoun's initials removed from the corpse and a letter addressed to him, which he used as a wad. Caught, Colhoun tries to escape, but Maurice the mustanger catches him.

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

It immediately turns out that Maurice Gerald is the owner of a large fortune. He marries Louise and buys Casa del Corvo from the heir Colhoun (it turns out he had a son). The servant Phelim O'Neill and Zeb Stump, who supplies game to the table, live happily with them. 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 branch.

surprisingly easily agrees and begins to get involved in archery - with the help of arrows she exchanges letters with Maurice the mustanger.

The next day it turns out that Henry has disappeared.

Suddenly, his horse with traces of dried blood appears at the gates of the estate. They suspect that the young man was attacked by Comanches. Fort officers and planters gather to search.

The search party is riding along a forest clearing, when suddenly, against the backdrop of the setting sun, a headless horseman appears to the eyes of those gathered. 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, the commandant of the fort, reports on the evidence found by the ranger Spangler that excludes the involvement of the Indians. Suspicion of murder falls on Maurice Gerald, and everyone decides to go to his hut in the morning.

At this time, the hunter Zebulon (Zeb) Stump comes to Casa del Corvo, ....

After some time, the commandant of Fort Inge, located near Casa del Corvo, organizes a return reception - a picnic on the prairie, during which it is planned to hunt mustangs. Maurice is the guide. As soon as the picnic participants settle down at a rest stop, a herd of wild mares appears, and a speckled mare, galloping after them, takes Louise to the prairie. Maurice fears that the speckled one, having caught up with her herd, will 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, extremely aggressive at this time of year, is galloping towards them. 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 that testify to the owner’s education.

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

Indeed, right there, in the bar, a duel takes place. Both participants are wounded, but the mustanger still manages to put a gun to Colhoun's head. He is forced to apologize.