Screenwriter...Andrew Kevin Walker

1799-Empty cobblestone streets bordered by stately buildings. A rapidly clanging bell breaks rings in the distance. Two constables walk around a corner, lanterns held high, listening. They disappear down an alleyway. The bell gets louder as they near the waterfront. The two constables arrive, searching, pistols drawn.

Constable #1: Where are you?!
Man’s Voice: (off screen) Here...! Over here!

The constables hurry to the river's edge...Down an embankment, the man, another constable, has his back to us. He's waist deep in dark water, throwing aside his alarm bell, struggling to pull something from the murk...

Man: I need your help with this.

The constables move forward, cautiously.

Constable #1: Constable Crane? Ichabod Crane...is that you?

The man turns to reveal Ichabod Crane, handsome, eyes piercing but nervous and unsettled.

Ichabod: None other, and not only me...(returns to lifting) I have found something… (he drags a bloated male corpse out from the water. He backs away, shaken, looks to the constables) ...which was lately a man.

***
City Watchouse Jail. The high constable lifts a blanket off the corpse in a wheelbarrow manned by Constable #2. Constable #1 and Ichabod are near, watching.

High Constable: Burn it.
Constable #1: Yes, sir.

Constable #2 wheels the corpse down a ramp to another room.

Ichabod: Just a moment, if I may...we do not yet know the cause of death.
High Constable: When you find 'em in the river, cause of death is drowning.
Ichabod: Possibly so if there is water in the lungs, but...by pathology we might determine whether or not he was dead when he went into the river.
High Constable: Cut him up? Are we heathens? Let him rest in peace - in one piece as according to God and the New York Department of Health. (Ichabod is about to protest, but stops himself, frustrated. Two thuggish constable - different ones - bring in a bleeding semiconscious man.) What happened to him?
Thuggish Constable: Nothing, sir. Arrested for burglary.

The constables throw him against the bars of the slammer while one of them opens the cage door. With their leather truncheons, the cops beat their prisoner into the cage and lock him in.
High Constable: Good work.

Ichabod hurries to follow his two constables and the corpse.

***
City Watchouse. Day. The streets bustle with horsedrawn vehicles plodding, men, women, children, merchants and tradesmen everywhere. Men are held in chains and gibbets in front of the Watchhouse. Inside…A row of city officials are "auditioning" applicants (mostly obvious Cranks and Eccentrics) with devices for crime fighting and crime solving. The Applicants are crowded together to one side, waiting their turn. Ichabod, holding only papers and books, is among them. "On Stage" at this moment is an inventor demonstrating his invention. Facing the "stage" is the burgomaster, flanked by the high constable (who has a list of names) and various magistrates and eldermen. The Inventor is demonstrating a combination wallet and mousetrap.

Inventor: ...and in a few weeks, the plague of pickpockets will be a thing of the past! (He shows how to set the trap-spring) Give me a dozen constables in gentleman's dress...(He pockets the wallet-trap) ...mixing with the crowds where pickpockets are rife! (He produces a fake hand-on-a-stick and does the business) A stealthy hand dips into the gentleman's pocket...and –

There is the sound of the trap snapping shut and the Inventor withdraws the fake hand with its fingers chopped off. The Officials wince, impressed.

Burgomaster: Thank you. We will take your device under consideration, Mr. Vanderbilt... Next!

A man starts dragging a man-sized cage contraption to center stage...while Ichabod tries to get the attention of the Officials.

Ichabod: Gentlemen! The Millennium is almost upon us. In a few months we will be living in the nineteenth century!
High Constable: Wait your turn, Constable Crane.
Ichabod: These devices are unworthy of a modern civilization.
Burgomaster: Quiet! Next, I say!
Man: Thank you, sir! (He turns proudly to his man-size cage, whose front hinges down. The floor of the cage is a steel plate. A "writting board" for signing confessions is attached to the inside of the cage.) The Tomkins self-locking Confessional is cheap at the price and will last for years with just an occasional wipe with a damp cloth. When the villain steps on the floor plate.
Ichabod: (dropping books and papers around his feet, is feverishly writing on a blank page. His "traveling inkpot" is hung around his neck. He points to the man) Arrest that man!
High Constable: (jaw dropped) Arrest?
Ichabod: I accuse him of murder!
Man: What the devil are you talking about, you loon?!

Ichabod takes two steps toward him and gives him a violent shove in the chest. The man staggers back into his cage, which self-locks, and at the same time a head clamp descends from the top, gripping the man’s head. His arms flail about as he yells. Ichabod slaps his page on the writing board, offers his pen.
Ichabod: Sign here!
Man: (groaning and pointing) The release handle!
Ichabod: Not till you confess! (Uproar around him, he waits as the prisoner signs the paper, then pulls the release handle. Waving the confession) I have here a confession to the murder of a man I fished out of the river last night!
High Constable: (furious) Stand down!
Ichabod: I stand up, for sense and justice! Our jails overflow with men and women convicted on confessions worth no more than this one!

The High Constable bangs a gavel until he gets some silence for the Burgomaster. Meanwhile, the man is rescued by his friends.

Burgomaster: Constable, this is a song we have heard from you more than once but never before with this discordant accompaniment. I have two courses open to me. First, I can let you cool your heels in the cells until you learn respect for the dignity of my office...
Ichabod: I beg pardon. I only meant well. Why am I the only one who sees that to solve crimes, to detect the guilty, we must use our brains? To recognize vital clues, using up-to- date scientific –
Burgomaster: (interrupting) Which brings me to the second course. Constable Crane, there is a town upstate, two days' journey to the north in the Hudson Highlands. It is a place called Sleepy Hollow. Have you heard of it?
Ichabod: I have not.
Burgomaster: An isolated farming community, mostly Dutch. Three persons have been murdered there, all within a fortnight. Each found with their head lopped off.
Ichabod: Lopped off?
Burgomaster: Clean as dandelion heads, apparently. Now, these ideas of yours, they have never been put to the test.
Ichabod: I have never been allowed to put them to the test!
Burgomaster: Just so, granted. So you take your experimentations to Sleepy Hollow and deduce, er detect the murderer. Bring him here to face our good justice. Will you do this?
Ichabod: (swallowing doubt) I shall, gladly.
Burgomaster: And remember - it is you, Ichabod Crane, who is now put to the test. (he smiles)

***
Ichabod’s house. Piles of books and papers, jars of chemicals, magnifying glasses, chalkboards covered with scrawl and anatomy charts above a small bed. At the window, Ichabod holds a bird cage with a red cardinal inside. He opens the cage and the bird flies free.

Ichabod: Such a day for such a sad farewell, this is good-bye, my sweet.

Ichabod watches it go, sad, then looks down. A coach stops in the street below. The driver looks up. Ichabod prepares to leave. The coach exits the city, following a dirt road to a forested path. As daylight wanes, a wolf is heard howling. Ichabod looks out, unnerved, shuts the window's curtain. Night turns to day and the coach continues to move through the forest. Ichabod checks the contents of a leather satchel in his lap. He pauses a moment, studying the palm of his hand. He touches the strange scars on both his palms: evenly dispersed, tiny dots of tissue. Many scars. They finally arrive in Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod stands between two massive stone pillars. He's unsure, turning to watch his coach leave him behind. He picks up his bags and heads between the pillars, starting up a long straight road. He does not notice, in the tree limbs above: three dead ravens hung by twine. He enters the town square, passing a church and a graveyard. The road ahead is bordered by rows of businesses and two-story homes. An elderly woman stands in a doorway, watching him. He tips his hat. The woman backs away, shuts her door. He continues. He looks up...a man closes the shutters of a second-story window. He continues and sees that there are two or three Riflemen placed at vantage points on the roofs and up on the Church Tower. A strange wooden bunker, like a fortress with a huge bell mounted on top, sits in a field. Several farmers are gathered, all with rifles. Ichabod stops as he walks, looking at this...

A boy, young Masbath, aged 10, goes up his father, one of the riflemen - Jonathan Masbath - with food and drink tied up in cloth and a bottle of beer. Masbath Senior takes the picnic and gives young Masbath an affectionate pat. He smiles confidently.

Masbath Sr. : Don't worry, son.

One farmer comes to lead young Masbath away as Jonathan heads into the bunker, taking several rifles. In front of the bunker, across a field, other dirt farmers light torch posts in a line along the forest edge. Ichabod ponders this and walks off...

Van Tassel House. Ichabod steps up to the front door, puts down his bags, holding onto his satchel. Jack-O-Lantern’s glow on the porch. A couple are busy kissing in a dark corner of the porch. The woman is a pretty servant, Sarah. The man is Dr. Lancaster. Ichabod almost blunders into them, causing a little panic and embarrassment, and as he mumbles apologies and opens the door revealing the main hall where a harvest party is in progress. He step in. Men and women are eating and drinking, talking quietly in groups. Ichabod looks around and tentatively makes his way, bumping into a few people, excusing himself. He mops his sweaty brow, finds a pretty girl.

Ichabod: Pardon my intrusion, I seek Baltus Van Tassel but -
Girl: In the parlor, sir, further on.
Ichabod thanks her, continues. Ahead, a group of revelers are in a circle taunting a blindfolded young woman spun around by a handsome, barrel-chested man, Brom Van Brunt. Brom releases the woman. Everyone quiets, avoiding her searching hands. She circles slowly, chanting a refrain that makes the children and some of the younger women giggle nervously and hush each other up.

Blindfolded Woman: "The Pickety Witch, the Pickety Witch, who's got a kiss for the pickety witch?"

She makes a lunge, grabbing empty air, just missing Brom; everyone moans humorously. Dr. Lancaster slips back into the party with Sarah. Ichabod is trying to pass through to reach the farther door and on the next refrain, finds himself caught by the Blindfolded Woman. Everyone stays quiet, that's the game, but of course everyone is also puzzled, not knowing Ichabod. The Woman touches Ichabod's face, which embarrasses him and displeases Brom.

Child: A kiss, a kiss!
Woman: She has to guess first.
The woman is wifely, and as she puts her arm through Dr. Lancaster's arm, we realize she is his wife.
Blindfolded Woman: Is it Theodore? (the crowd laughs)
Ichabod: Pardon, ma'am. I am only a stranger.
Blindfolded Woman: Then have a kiss on account. (she kisses him laughingly and takes the blindfold off to reveal a stunning beauty: Katrina Van Tassel. She smiles and Ichabod tries to compose himself, awed by the sight of her.
Ichabod: I...um, I am looking for Baltus Van Tassel.
Katrina: I am his daughter, Katrina Van Tassel.
Brom: And who are you, friend? We have not heard your name yet.
Ichabod: I have not said it. Excuse me...
Brom: (grabs Ichabod's collar. Ichabod's baffled) You need some manners.
Katrina: Brom!
Man’s Voice: (Off Screen) Come, come - we want no raised voices.
The voice belongs to Baltus Van Tassel, a working-class self-made Mr. Big with a sympathetic smile.
Baltus: It is only to raise the spirits during this dark time that I and my good wife are giving this little party. (Lady Van Tassel stands behind him. Brom releases Ichabod. Children hide behind Katrina. Others from the party gather) Young sir, you are welcome even if you are selling something!
Ichabod: Thank you, sir. I am Constable Ichabod Crane, sent to you from New York with authority to investigate murder in Sleepy Hollow.
A man known as Magistrate Philipse looks up sharply. Another man known as Reverend Steenwyck grunts skeptically. Dr. Lancaster exchanges a surprised look with another man, Notary Hardenbrook.
Steenwyck: (rudely) Well, what use is a Constable?!
Lady Van Tassel: (gives the Clergyman a reproachful look) Then, Sleepy Hollow is grateful to you, Constable Crane - I hope you will honor this house by remaining with us until...
Brom: Until you've made the arrest!
To Ichabod's surprise this gets a nervous laugh. Baltus frowns at Brom. Katrina looks at Ichabod with renewed interest.
Baltus: (to his wife) Well spoke! (to Ichabod) Come, sir. We'll get you settled. (to the Musicians) Play on!

Baltus catches the eyes of Philipse, then of Lancaster, nodding as if to say "See you in a minute." As he leads Ichabod out, he murmurs to Steenwyck, who nods and passes the murmur to Hardenbrook. The Fiddlers strike up the music. Katrina watches Ichabod's exit. Brom watches Katrina's interest with displeasure.

***
Van Tassel’s house. Ichabod’s room. Music can be heard from downstairs. Ichabod is unpacking – arranging his scientific books. His "medical case," revealing a few mysterious instruments, is open on the bed. Sarah is just delivering a pitcher of water to the washstand.
Ichabod: Thank you. Please tell Mr. Van Tassel I will be down in a moment.
Sarah: I will, sir. (then - as she leaves) Thank God you are here!
Ichabod is a bit surprised by her emotion. Then he pours the water and splashes his face.

Down in the parlor…five men wait grimly for Ichabod, silent in the presence of Sarah, who is placing a pipe cradle by Baltus. Lady Van Tassel is pouring the men a drink. Lancaster is 50, dour, always sweaty. Philipse is youngest, a drinker, eyes bloodshot, fills his glass with a shot from his private flask. Reverend Steenwyck has a disdainful, sour expression. Hardenbrook is oldest, ancient, nervous, one eye pale and blind.

Hardenbrook: All the way from New York!
Dr. Lancaster: A waste of time!
Steenwyck: (to Baltus) What can he do?
Baltus: (calmingly) Gentlemen, gentlemen...
Sarah, leaving, passes Dr. Lancaster, who secretly trails his hand against Sarah's buttock...not quite secretly enough for the vigilance of Lady Van Tassel, who, by the keen look in her eyes, shows us that she has noticed. Sarah leaves just as Ichabod appears in the doorway. She closes the door behind him.
Baltus: (to Ichabod) Excellent! Come in! (to his wife) Leave us, my dear.
Ichabod: So. Three persons murdered. First, Peter Van Garrett and his son Dirk Van Garrett, both of them strong capable men, found together, decapitated. A week later, the Widow Winship, also decapitated. I will need to ask you many questions, but first let me ask - is anyone suspected?
Baltus: I don't understand you.
Ichabod: I say, is there any one person suspect in these acts?

The men stir in their seats - their looks say "I told you so!" -"Useless!" - etc.
Baltus: Constable...how much have your superiors explained to you?
Ichabod: Only that the three were slain in open ground and their heads found severed from their bodies.
Steenwyck: The heads were not found severed. The heads were not found at all.
Ichabod: The heads are gone?
Hardenbrook: (leans forward, his voice cragged) Taken. Taken by the Headless Horseman. Taken back to hell.
Ichabod: Pardon me, I...?
Baltus: Perhaps you had better sit down (he gestures for Ichabod to sit, lights his pipe and pours a glass for Ichabod. The men help themselves to food and drink) The Horseman was a Hessian mercenary, sent to our shores by German princes to keep Americans under the yoke of England. But unlike his compatriots who came for money, the Horseman came...for love of carnage...and he was not like the others...

***
Flashback-American Battlefield in Winter. The Hessian Horseman rides his black steed into a gory, close-quarters clash, his cloaked uniform adorned with edged weapons. He cuts down Americans left and right.
Baltus: (Voice Over) He rode a giant black steed named Daredevil. He was infamous for taking his horse hard into battle...chopping off heads at full gallop.

The Horseman dismounts, hoists a battle axe. With sword and axe, he annihilates. Blood gushes. Bones crack.

Baltus: To look upon him made your blood run cold, for he had filed down his teeth to sharp points...to add to the ferocity of his appearance...

The Horseman lets out a war cry to reveal horrible jagged teeth.

Baltus: (Continues…) This butcher would not finally meet his end till the winter of seventy-nine...

The Horseman rises, eyes filled with rage, looks to see six revolutionary soldiers give chase, firing rifles. The Horseman flees, bullets throwing snow behind.

Baltus: ...not far from here in our Western Woods...

Another flashback. In the forest battlefield. The Horseman glances back, bounding through, drawing his sword, when suddenly he stops. Two young girls gather firewood. The girls stand frozen at the sight of him for a long, silent moment, till one girl drops the firewood and runs. The second girl remains, holding the Horseman's gaze. The Horseman and the girl hold each other's gaze for a long beat. The Horseman puts his finger to his lips, warning her to stay quiet. The girl takes one of her pieces of dry wood and deliberately breaks it, making a noise like a pistol shot. There is a responding shout from a soldier back in the trees. The Horseman turns to the sound. Soldiers move forward from the forest behind, spreading out. The second girl flees. The Horseman hefts his sword, turning as soldiers surround. One soldier aims his rifle. The Horseman reaches over his shoulder, grasps a sheathed knife and throws - the rifleman jerks back, knife in his eye socket. A second soldier aims and fires. Blood explodes from the Horseman's arm. His sword drops. He readies his axe in his good hand. The Revolutionaries move in with swords. They battle and the Horseman fends off blows. Soldier three stabs his blade deep into the Horseman's side. The Horseman roars, bringing his axe down breaking the sword at the hilt. An upward stroke sends Soldier three backward in a fountain of blood. The Horseman staggers, trying to pull the blade from his ribs. The remaining soldiers close in...

Van Tassle House. Parlor. Ichabod is spooked. Pipe smoke wafts from Baltus's mouth.

Baltus: They cut off his head with his own sword. To this day, the Western Woods is a haunted place where brave men will not venture.

Flashback. The Horseman's headless corpse is dropped into a grave. One of the four surviving soldiers stabs the Horseman’s sword deep in the ground as a marker. The grave is done. The soldiers walk away from the grave. Daredevil appears, limping, from the trees, and puts his nose down to the turned earth. The second girl is watching from hiding. She sees: Daredevil collapses on the grave, blood frothing from his mouth. Dying.

Baltus: ...for what was planted in the ground that day was a seed of evil. (return from flashbacks) And so it has been for twenty years. But now the Hessian wakes - he is on the rampage, cutting off heads where he finds them.
Ichabod: (sits back, shakes off the eerie feeling of the tale. He takes a gulp from his glass) Are you...saying...? Is that what you believe?
Hardenbrook: Seeing is believing! (Baltus puts a calming hand on Hardenbrook's shoulder)
Dr. Lancaster: No one knows why the Hessian has chosen this time to return from the grave.
Steenwyck: Satan has called forth one of his own. (Steenwyck stands and picks up the Baltus family Bible) They tell me you have brought books and trappings of scientific investigation - this is the only book I recommend you study.

He drops the Bible on the table in front of Ichabod, making him jump. Ichabod lifts the front cover - revealing a page of ink writing, which he will remember later - then he snaps out of all this "nonsense."
Ichabod: Reverend Steenwyck...gentlemen...murder needs no ghost come from the grave. Which of you have laid eyes on this Headless Horsemen?

Pause.

Hardenbrook: Others have. Many others.
Baltus: You will see him too if he comes again. The men of the village are posted to watch for him.
Ichabod: We have murders in New York without benefit of ghouls and goblins.
Baltus: You are a long way from New York, sir.
Ichabod: A century at least. The assassin is a man of flesh and blood, and I will discover him.
Steenwyck: How do you propose to do so?
Ichabod: By discovering his reason. It is what we call "the motive." This mystery will not resist investigation by a rational man. (Ichabod's natural clumsiness, however, causes him to sweep his empty glass off the table, rather ruining the effect of the rational man in command of the situation)

***
Katrina is sitting in front of her mirror in her bedroom. Lady Van Tassel is brushing out Katrina's hair, counting the strokes.
Katrina: Well, I'm disappointed...our first visitor from New York...(knock on door) He doesn't know where to put himself and his feet are all over the place.
Lady Van Tassel: (gives Katrina the hairbrush and goes to the door) Yes, not like your Brom. Go on brushing, I got to forty-two. (She opens the door to Sarah)
Sarah: That constable, he wants the Bible, Mum.
Lady Van Tassel: Bible?
Katrina: I'll bring it to him. (Sarah dips a curtsy and goes. Lady Van Tassel gives Katrina a friendly raised eyebrow - meeting her eye, explains) We'll see if his city talk fits him better than his clothes.

Ichabod’s room. He sits, surrounded by his books, including his ledger. There is a knock at the door. He doesn’t turn around.
Ichabod: Yes - yes - come in. (Katrina enters carrying the Bible. Ichabod still doesn’t turn) Thank you, just leave it on the reading stand. (she sets the Bible down) That will be all - no, tell me, about that big brute who seems to be Miss Katrina's – (He finally turns in his chair, and sees Katrina, has a minor convulsion, stands up, knocking papers to the floor) Forgive me, I...I asked Sarah to bring me...
Katrina: (amused, relaxed) So your clever books have failed you and you turn to the Bible after all!
Ichabod: (sharply) I see I am talked about downstairs.
Katrina: In passing only - we have many things to talk about even in this backward place.
Ichabod: I am sorry. Please excuse my manner - I am not used to...
Katrina: Female company?
Ichabod: Society.
Katrina: How can you avoid society in New York? How I should love the opera - and theaters - to go dancing. Is it wonderful?
Ichabod: I have never been.
Katrina: But there is an art museum? A concert hall?
Ichabod: I don't know.
Katrina: (disappointed) Then you have nothing to teach me.
Ichabod: Perhaps I have. Do you believe the Van Garretts and the Widow Winship were murdered by a headless horseman?
Katrina: Not everyone here believes it is the Horseman.
Ichabod: (relieved) Good.
Katrina: Some say it is the witch of the Western Woods who has made a pact with Lucifer.
Ichabod: (exasperated) There are no witches, or galloping ghosts either! Is everyone in this village in thrall to superstition?
Katrina: Why are you so frightened of magic? Not all magic is black. There are ancient truths in these woods which have been forgotten in your city parks.
Ichabod: If they are truths they are not magic - and if magic, not truth.
Katrina: You are foolish. When there is fever in the house, it is well known that willow-herb roots and a crow's foot must be boiled in the milk of a pure white goat with special charms uttered over the fire...and the fever abates.
Ichabod: Next time try the herb without the rest - and now I must ask you - excuse me –
Katrina: Gladly. I should not have interrupted our town's savior. Good night. And as to your first question, that big brute you were asking about has proposed to me.
Ichabod: I...I...I'm happy that...
Katrina: Proposed to me several times.

This statement, accompanied by a faint smile, confuses Ichabod into silence as she closes the door behind her. He turns and gets to the next order of business - the Bible. He opens the front cover. On the endpaper is a Family Tree going back a hundred years, in seriously faded inks and handwritings. Ichabod studies it and we see what he learns: that Katrina was born in 1777...to Baltus's first wife, who died in 1797...that Lady Van Tassel is Baltus's second wife. Then he suddenly notices something even more interesting: The family tree has a "Van Garrett" in it - the husband of Baltus' father's sister.
Ichabod: (mutters) Van Garrett!

Ichabod looks thoughtful. He starts copying out details into his Ledger. A very faint rumbling disturbs him for a moment. He looks up. Silence for a minute. He gets back to work.

Outside. The street is empty. Then the low sinister sound of rumbling is heard again. At the wooden bunker, Jonathan looks out, fearful. The torches burn bright along the forest line. Jonathan watches the forest. A horrible, silent stillness has fallen. Then, Jonathan's eyes widen. A thick fog creeps from the woods, overtakes each torch, mist snakes up, snuffing each flame...one by one by one, all along the forest edge. Jonathan sticks his rifle out from the bunker, sights the gun along the treeline.
Jonathan: Come out, devil...come...

The sounds of Jonathan’s rifle firing are heard, echoing – more gunshots, then silence. Jonathan flees through the forest, glances back, terrified. Hoofbeats are heard from behind. A huge form on a black horse can be seen in the forest. Jonathan pushes through thorny bushes. Jagged branches bloody his hands and cheeks. He tumbles to a trail. The Horseman pursues him, gloved hand draws a sword blade ringing while Jonathan runs onward. The swing of the sword is heard and Jonathan is still running when his head lolls back, at an impossible angle...his head tumbles off his shoulders...his headless body hitting the dirt.

***
Next day. The village carries on. The murder has obviously not been discovered yet. Head to stables. The stables belong to Killian, father of a young family. Ichabod likes him...though he does not think much of the horse Killian is offering him, an old nag. Ichabod has a big satchel.

Killian: His name's Gunpowder.
Ichabod: A brave name, but...have you got something a little younger?...Taller?
Killian: (apparently getting it) Faster.
Ichabod: Yes.
Killian: A horse cut to dash.
Ichabod: Yes.
Killian: No, I haven't.
Ichabod: Oh.
Killian: Not at the price.
Ichabod: Well, I'm sure he'll do very well. Thank you, Mr. Killian.
Killian: Good luck, sir. If you need help, call my name.
Ichabod: Much appreciated.

Killian's son Thomas, a small boy, is feeding one of the horses. Mrs. Killian is at the door of the Killian House. She is in the act of seeing a woman out of her door, a pregnant woman and handing her a bunch of herbs.
Beth: (to Pregnant Woman) Mind you rub them well in the breech, Mrs. Sherry - don't worry, it'll be easy as shelling peas. (the pregnant woman leaves, Beth yells over her shoulder, turning to go into the house) Thomas! - It's you I want! (She goes into the house, passing a modest notice on the door: "Knock before entering -- Elizabeth Killian, midwife") Go off home for your breakfast, Tom - kiss your mother once for you and twice for me.

Ichabod: (has a thought as the boy goes) Mr. Killian, I was thinking...about the old widow...
Killian: Old Widow?
Ichabod: Widow Winship.
Killian: Who told you she was old? She was comely. Widowed young and dead before the bloom was off her.

Ichabod is surprised. Before he can react further, a distant gunshot is heard - followed by the distant sight of a man on horseback, hurrying and shouting, waving his rifle. Killian and Ichabod watch the rider coming, telling the news as he comes.

Rider: (shouting) Murder, murder! The Horseman has killed again!

Riders gallop across the fields toward the murder site. Baltus, a man called Van Ripper (the rider who found the body) followed by Brom, and a gig driven fast by Philipse, and Dr. Lancaster and various villagers. Way behind, trying to keep up on Gunpowder, comes Ichabod. Baltus takes charge of posting armed villagers to keep an eye out toward the forest.

Baltus: Mr. Miller - ride back for the coffin cart - the rest of you keep a sharp lookout. (to GLEN) No - not at me, Glen, I'm not going to cut my own head off! Look out to the woods!

Ichabod hasn't quite arrived. The others are watching as Dr. Lancaster turns over the headless corpse of Masbath. He straightens the body. Everyone is shocked and spooked, looking fearfully around. Behind them - a sound. Everyone reacts but it's Ichabod arriving.

Brom: (laughs) A fine looking animal, Crane.
Dr. Lancaster: (speaks as Ichabod dismounts) The fourth victim, Jonathan Masbath.
Ichabod: And...the head...?
Philipse: Taken.
Ichabod: Taken! (Dr. Lancaster seems unprofessionally jittery. He grasps Philipse by the arm. Philipse shakes him off and pulls out a flask. Ichabod notices this. Their behavior seems to him to be an odd moment. Then he turns his attention back to the matter at hand.) Interesting...very interesting.
Baltus: What is?
Ichabod: In headless corpse cases of this sort...the head is removed to prevent identification of the body.
Baltus: (puzzled) But we know this is Jonathan Masbath...
Ichabod: Exactly! So, why was the head removed?

They all wait for enlightenment.

Baltus: Why?
Ichabod: I don't know. (They all watch Ichabod to see what he will do. Philipse takes nips from the flask. But Ichabod isn't sure. He isn't too keen on looking at the corpse. Then he realizes) You have moved the body?
Dr. Lancaster: I did.
Ichabod: (furious) You must never move the body!
Dr. Lancaster: Why not?
Ichabod: Because!

Despite themselves, they are impressed. Ichabod takes heart. He finds a huge, deep hoofprint. He kneels, pulls his satchel off his shoulder, takes out a bowl, bottle of water and a bag of powder. The others watch, finding this bizarre, as Ichabod begins mixing the water and powder, making plaster.
Brom: What is that potion?
Ichabod: You are the blacksmith, Brom. Ever shoe a horse with a hoof this large? (Ichabod fills the print with runny plaster)
Brom: (grudging the point) It's big.
Ichabod shoulders his satchel, walks all around, studies the ground, kicks away leaves...and then moves around puzzlingly. The watchers are astonished by his antics as he leaps from hoofprint to hoofprint.
Dr. Lancaster: (to Philipse) The man's a fool.
Philipse: (drunk) He's a fool and we're damn fools - but death will make us all equal.

Dr. Lancaster impatiently hushes him and turns away.

Ichabod: The stride is gigantic...(he stops, turns, following back to way he came) The attacker rode Masbath down...turned his horse...came back...(stops leaping) Came back to claim the head. (pause) To sum up. Head taken. Big horse. (another pause) Did this man have any enemies?
Philipse: Well, someone didn't like him.
Ichabod: Van Ripper, show me where the neck rested. (Van Ripper points. Ichabod opens his satchel, takes out a bottle of green powder, uncorks the bottle, sprinkles a thin layer of powder on the dirt, waiting. A reaction causes the powder to bubble a little.) A chemical reaction, it shows there was just a smear of blood, no more.
Van Ripper: I didn't see none.
Ichabod's: (Puzzled. He swallows, queasy, trying not to let it show. He takes odd spectacles from his satchel, wire-framed with many lense, fumbles putting them on, examines the gross neck wound. Takes an instrument from his satchel, a delicate scissor tool that tapes off into tiny jaws. He uses it, hand shaking, to pick at the flesh. Camera pans through Ichabod’s point of view and shows a creepy crawly bug feeding on the wound. Ichabod freaks, leaps up. Recovering, faking) Interesting...
Baltus: What is it? - What is it?!
Ichabod: (uses his foot to squash and grind the bug, which is too small to be visible. He looks at Baltus, his eyes huge in his spectacles) The wound was cauterized in the very instant...as though the blade itself were red hot...and yet, no blistering, no scorched flesh.
Philipse: The Devil's fire!

Ichabod looks worried too.

***
Cemetery. The town is gathered for Jonathan Masbath's funeral. Steenwyck stands at the open grave, reads from the Bible.

Steenwyck: (reading) "Be sober, be vigilant..." as it sayeth in the book of Peter, chapter five, verse eight - "because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour..."

People whisper and steal glances at Ichabod. He stands with Baltus and Lady Van Tassel. Ichabod looks around, observing. Young Masbath stands with his head bowed. Brom stands beside Katrina, who wipes tears. Brom puts his arm around Katrina, comforting. Theodore and Glenn are nearby with rifles over their shoulders. Later, the funeral is done. People head out from the cemetery. Ichabod walks with the Van Tassels. Baltus holds Katrina's hand. Young Masbath runs to catch up with Ichabod.

Young Masbath: Mister Constable, sir...
Ichabod: (stops) You are Young Masbath...
Young Masbath: I was Young Masbath, but now the only one. Masbath at your service, in honor bound to avenge my father.
Ichabod: Well, one-and-only Masbath, I thank you, but your mother will need you more than I.
Young Masbath: My mother is in heaven, sir, and has my father now to care for her. But you have no one to serve you, and I am your man, sir.
Ichabod: And a brave man too, but I cannot be the one to look after you. I am sorry for your loss, young Mister Masbath.

Ichabod moves away, watched young by Masbath who seems disappointed. Ichabod finds his sleeve furtively plucked by Philipse.

Philipse: Constable...
Ichabod: Mr. Philipse?
Philipse: (looks around anxiously to see if they're observed) Something you should know. Jonathan Masbath was not the fourth victim but the fifth!
Ichabod: The fifth?
Philipse: Aye. Five victims in four graves!
Ichabod: But who?
Philipse: (sees that Steenwyck has noticed the encounter. He breaks off and hurries away. Ichabod turns his gaze toward the fresh grave of Jonathan Masbath, and three more graves almost as recent: The Van Garretts are just receiving their brand new headstones, and Widow Winship's grave is marked for the present by a simple wooden cross with her name on it. Ichabod sees Killian and nods to him) Mr. Killian...I will need the help you offered.

They head to the stables. Ichabod lifts the lid of a large feed bin half full of horse feed. Young Masbath is curled up inside like a mouse in a nest. Homeless.

Ichabod: Find a place in the Van Tassel's servant quarters. Wake me before dawn. I hope you have a strong stomach. (he walks away, disgruntled)
Young Masbath: Thank you, sir.

***
Cemetery. Night. The lid of a muddy coffin is wrenched open. The coffin contains a headless corpse. Just the one. The coffin is on the ground next to the hole marked by the headstone of Peter Van Garrett. Killian holds a lantern and a spade. Ichabod, holding a handkerchief to his face, looks into the open coffin. He nods. Ichabod, in shirtsleeves and sweating, has a spade too. Young Masbath is watching uneasily, visibly nauseous. He gags. At Ichabod's nod, Killian replaces the lid. Killian has two men with him. There are two more coffins and two more piles of dirt, one coffin for Dirk Van Garrett and one for Widow Winship. Ichabod moves to the second coffin. It contains a headless corpse. Just the one. Ichabod nods, and the lid is replaced. The third coffin - the Widow's - is being opened by one of the Men. Ichabod takes a lantern and looks expectantly as the lid comes off. The Widow's headless corpse is alone in the coffin. Ichabod pauses. Nods. As the lid is about to be replaced. He stops it.

Ichabod: Wait.

He takes out a small penknife and cuts through the shroud. He reveals the belly. He stares at it. Was she pregnant? It's impossible to tell. But there is the wound of a sword stab in the stomach. Suddenly there is a screech, which seems to come from the corpse, giving heart attacks all around - but now we see a figure holding a lantern. It's Reverend Steenwyck who has discovered them and is outraged.

Steenwyck: Sacrilege! Sacrilege!
Ichabod: (recovers) Science...science, Reverend Steenwyck! Someone in Sleepy Hollow is using the Horseman story for his own murderous purpose, and I intend to...dig it out.

Steenwyck froths, looks terrified and backs off.

***
Dr. Lancaster’s home. Medical Room. Ichabod and Killian, helped by Young Masbath, carry the Widow's muddy coffin inside. Dr. Lancaster watches in horror, sweating profusely, freaked out.

Dr. Lancaster: This is...most irregular, Constable.
Ichabod: I should hope so. But in this case, necessary. (The coffin is put down) I will need to operate.
Dr. Lancaster: Operate? She's dead!
Ichabod: (thrown) When we say "operate," we mean, of course...er, I'll need the operating table. Lay her out, please. (to Young Masbath) Go on, nothing to be afraid of. (When Killian and Young Masbath lay out the corpse, Ichabod gulps water and studies the pages of his Ledger) There is a common thread between these victims.
Dr. Lancaster: And what's that?
Ichabod: (closing the Ledger) I don't know. (He goes to examine the corpse. Young Masbath retreats to a corner, afraid to look) Once more, the neck wound cauterized. The sword thrust to the stomach, the same, perhaps by chemical means. But to what purpose?

Ichabod gingerly feels the corpse's stomach. The Doctor watches, nervously.
Dr. Lancaster: To what is your purpose, is the question. (Ichabod removes odd surgical instruments out from his satchel) What manner of instruments are those?
Ichabod: Some of my own design. (he picks through his instruments, unsure. He looks to the corpse a long moment. Then at Young Masbath.) Step outside. Thank you for your help, Mr. Killian. And, if you do not mind, Doctor, my concentration suffers when I am observed.

Ichabod watches Killian, Young Masbath and Lancaster go. He quickly returns to his satchel, pulling out a book: HUMAN ANATOMY. He searches the pages. He flips through drawings of anatomy, then sets the book open nearby so he can refer to it. He picks up a knife, stands at the corpse, taking a deep uncertain breath. Ichabod cuts into the Widow's belly, but stops, looking horrified at what he's done. He leans close to study the book again, worried. He makes another incision. He looks down at it, queasy.

Doctor’s Residence. Day. Young Masbath sits waiting. Dr. Lancaster stands with Philipse (hung over), Steenwyck and Hardenbrook, speaking agitatedly. Other people have gathered in the background. The door to the doctor's residence opens and Ichabod steps out. He is bloodied, shaken, futilely wiping at the mess with a blood-covered cloth, looking up. All attention goes to Ichabod. Everyone's horrified.

Ichabod: I am...finished.
Steenwyck: What in God's name have you done to her? (pointing) Magistrate Philipse, you are the word of law here...put him in irons!
Philipse: (he and Ichabod exchange a look. He then sips from his flask) And what did you find out, Constable?
Ichabod: That there are not four victims but five. The Widow Winship was with child!
Dr. Lancaster: (the crowd murmurs, shocked. He recovers, furious) What of it? She should have been left to make her peace with God and not cut to bits by the Constabulary!
Ichabod: (shaken for a moment, remembering the similar charge made against him in New York) The sword was thrust into the womb and no farther. A symbolic murder. We are dealing with a madman.

Long Straight Road. Covered Bridge. Later that night. Ichabod rides Gunpowder across the bridge. Following the road, he is lost in thought. Hoofbeats are heard on the bridge behind. He turns to look and the hoofbeats stop.

Ichabod: Who's there?

He faces forward, continuing to the forest. He hums a tune to himself, tone deaf. After a moment, a horse is heard snorting, the hoofbeats resume. He stops Gunpowder. A figure, on horseback, comes out from the darkness of the bridge, slowly.

Ichabod: Who are you?

The figure comes into moonlight, on a black horse, smoke seeming to rise from him; a dark figure, cloaked - headless. Ichabod panics, kicking Gunpowder to flee. The figure takes off to follow. Ichabod whips Gunpowder's reins, gasping, moving faster. The figure behind also picks up speed. Gunpowder carries Ichabod into the forest. The headless figure is right behind, cloak flowing. The headless figure is heard letting out a hellish cry of rage. Ichabod glances fearfully over his shoulder. A horrible face with flaming eyes and mouth rushes forward. It smashes into Ichabod - sends him sprawling to the ground in an explosion of red hot ash and cinders. Ichabod rolls, shaken...looking behind. The trail is empty. Hoofbeats are heard. Several horses. Ichabod stands. He looks down at the remnants of a broken Jack-O-Lantern and smoldering ball of paper on the trail. The figure rides to a halt, throws off a cloak and "headless" disguise to reveal Brom. Glenn and Theodore ride up, laughing. Brom also laughs, but when he looks back, the smile leaves his face. He takes grim satisfaction in what he's done. Ichabod's face is haunted, running with the sweat of fear - he is still trembling from the experience.

Female Voice: (Voice Over) Ichabod! Ichabod!

And suddenly we realize we are in Ichabod's dream.

Female Voice: (Voice Over) Ichabod! Ichabod!

A woman is in the doorway, holding out her arms. She seems to be Katrina as Ichabod first saw her, blindfolded. A young boy, aged about seven, runs toward her, with a little bunch of wildflowers. The Blindfolded Woman is playing the Pickety Witch Game with Ichabod. He is laughing - scared as she grabs the air looking for him. He is holding the wildflowers he picked. She seizes him, kisses him and takes off the blindfold. It's not Katrina, but his Mother, a kind and lovely face. He gives his Mother the flowers. She puts one of the flowers in her hair, laughing. But the others - she throws on the fire! - and she crouches at the hearthstone, beckoning him, still "nice." He comes to her, not scared. As the flowers burn, they give off smoky fumes, which the Mother inhales like perfume, closing her eyes in a trance. He watches fascinated as she picks up a twig and starts drawing pictures - strange designs - in the layer of ash on the hearthstone. Suddenly Ichabod turns his head to the door, which is opening - spooky because no one is entering. Then he sees at floor level the family cat has come through the door. A black cat with a white paw. Ichabod's Mother is "awakened" by this, just in time as Father, a grim Parson all in black, enters. Ichabod looks up frightened at the face of his Father. The Cat is on Ichabod's bed...watching Mother who is entertaining Ichabod with the Bird-in-Cage Spinning Disc Toy, which we will get to know. Ichabod is tucked up in bed, astonished and happy. The Bird and Cage blur together. Lightning flashes outside a window, thunder booms, the storm bursts open the window. The Cat leaps off the bed, caught in lightning flash, the toy drops, tangled on the bed. Ichabod covers his face, scared; his Mother hugs him…

Ichabod is startled awake, frightened, sweating.

***
Van Tassel house. Ichabod enters with a lantern and his Ledger. He sits, studies notes, then notices a light down the hall. He enters the sewing room. Opposite an elaborate loom, Katrina reads by candlelight. She looks up, and self-consciously closes her book, which we see is a child's version of The Knights of the Round Table. She covers it on her lap.

Ichabod: Oh...pardon my intrusion...I saw a light...
Katrina: It is no intrusion...I come here to read when I am wakeful.
Ichabod: To read books which you must hide?
Katrina: They were my mother's books...my father frowned at them then, and would frown at me now. He believes tales of romance caused the brain fever that killed my mother. She died two years ago come midwinter.
Ichabod: (nods) I saw it written in the front of the Bible.
Katrina: The nurse who cared for her during her sickness is now Lady Van Tassel.
Ichabod: There was something else too. Why did no one think to mention that Van Garretts are kith and kin to the Van Tassels?
Katrina: Why, because there is hardly a household in Sleepy Hollow that is not connected to every other by blood or marriage. I have more cousins than fingers and toes to count them on.
Ichabod: (goes to the window to look at the edge of dawn. A rooster crows) I see.
Katrina: This land was Van Garrett Land, given to my father when I was in swaddling clothes.
Ichabod: Given by the dead Van Garrett?
Katrina: (nods) The Van Garretts were the richest family round these parts even then. When my father brought us to Sleepy Hollow, Van Garrett set him up with an acre and a broken-down cottage, and a dozen of Van Garrett hens. My father prospered, and built us a new house. I owe my happiness to him. I remember living poor in the cottage. Should I show you?
Ichabod: Yes. I would like to see where you were as poor as I am.
Katrina: (stands up, revealing a Book that had been on the floor, hidden by her skirt. She picks up the book and gives it to Ichabod.) Take this. It is my gift for you.
Ichabod: (looks at the title page: A Compendium of Spells, Charms and Devices of the Spirit World. He is troubled by it’s title) But I have no use for...
Katrina: Are you so certain of everything?
Ichabod: (sees that Katrina's name is written on the endpaper, and, in a different hand, her mother's name, "Elizabeth Van Tassel.") It was your mother's?
Katrina: Keep it close to your heart. It is sure protection against harm.
Ichabod: (smiles) Are you so certain of everything?

Their eyes meet and hold for a moment. Ichabod accepts the book by placing it on the desk.

***
Farmland. Day. Ichabod and Katrina ride slowly toward the ruin of a cottage. There is almost nothing left but the hearth and a part of a chimney. Ichabod dismounts and helps Katrina down from her horse, taking her hand. Before he lets go, she notices the little scars on his palm. She takes both his hands and looks at them.

Katrina: These are strange. What are they?
Ichabod: I wish I knew. I had them since I can remember.

Katrina holds his hands a moment longer, their eyes meet, then she lets go and "enters" the ruin. Ichabod's attention is caught by a red Cardinal on a branch, like the bird he had in New York. He reflects a moment, then turns to watch Katrina crouching by the hearth. She has put a flower in her hair.

Katrina: I used to play by this hearth. It was my first drawing school and my mother was my teacher.
Without knowing, Katrina is mimicking Ichabod's dream. She picks up a twig and starts "drawing" on the hearth stone. Like Ichabod's mother in his dream. Ichabod's blood runs cold but she is unaware of him. Then he notices that a few small wildflowers are growing in the old fireplace. Ichabod feels short of breath, he leans against the stones for support.
Katrina: Oh, look! I'd forgotten this! See - carved into the fire-back, the Archer! (Using her fingers she cleans off the dirt around a simple carving of a man with a Bow and Arrow.) This was from long before we lived here. (She turns to show Ichabod and notices him looking strange.) Are you all right? (Ichabod nods, recovering, saying nothing. Suddenly her attention is caught, as Ichabod's was, by the Cardinal bird.) Oh, look! A Cardinal! My favorite! I would love to have a tame one, but I wouldn't have the heart to cage him.
Ichabod: (unslings his satchel) Then I have something for you.

He has a paper disk with a bird on one side and an empty cage on the other, pierced by a looped string on which the disk can twist and spin. He demonstrates like a magician. This is the very toy given to him by his Mother.

Ichabod: A Cardinal on one side, and an empty cage. (Katrina watches intently. Ichabod spins the disk) And now...
The bird appears to be inside the cage. Katrina is astonished and delighted.
Katrina: You can do magic! Teach me!
Ichabod: It is no magic. It is optics. (he gives her the toy and shows her how to spin it) Separate pictures which become one picture in the spinning... Like the truth which I must spin here...

Katrina spins the disk, the bird appears in the cage.

***
Philipse house. Night. Through lighted windows, figures of men are seen pacing, apparently arguing. Philipse is packing his bags, moving out...while three men, Steenwyck, Dr. Lancaster and Hardenbrook, are in agitated conference. Their raised voices make an undecipherable hubbub. The Camera’s point of view horse makes a horsey snuffling sound. Steenwyck comes right to the window as if he has seen something...but he merely closes the shutters. The reverse pan of the camera shows that it is Ichabod who has been spying. He backs off and mounts Gunpowder, looking thoughtful, then determined. Outside the village, a man is on a heavily loaded pack horse...Philipse making his getaway from Sleepy Hollow. As he reaches the foreground, Ichabod on Gunpowder intercepts him, grabbing the bridle of the pack horse.

Philipse: What are you doing? Let go!
Ichabod: What are you running from, Magistrate Philipse?
Philipse: Damn you, Crane -
Ichabod: You'll raise the village. (Philipse calms down) You had a mind to help me.
Philipse: Yes - and I put myself in mortal dread of...
Ichabod: Of...what?
Philipse: Powers against which there is no defense.
Ichabod: How did you know the widow was expecting a child?
Philipse: She told me.
Ichabod: Then I deduce you are the father.
Philipse: I hope your deductions serve you better in your contest against the Hessian. I am not the father.
Ichabod: Did she tell you the name of the child's father?
Philipse: Yes - she did. She came to me for advice - as the town magistrate –(Ichabod hears sounds...of sheep in agitation at some distance but he holds Philipse to his story)... to protect the rights of her child. I was bound by my oath of office to keep the secret.
Ichabod: Do you believe the father killed her?
Philipse: (stares at him in surprise) The Horseman killed her! You damn fool, do you suppose the Horseman stops to impregnate our women?
Ichabod: The Horseman? How often do I have to tell you there is no Horseman! There never was a Horseman! And there never will be a Horseman!

Ichabod grabs him fiercely, pulling on the amulet Philipse wears around his neck.

Philipse: Let go! It is my talisman that protects me from the Horseman!
Ichabod: You a magistrate! And your head full of such nonsense! Now tell me the name of -


Philipse: Oh my...oh my oh my oh my...

He runs away. The hoofbeats grow louder and closer. Ichabod faces the forest. The forest explodes open, foliage bending to make way as the Headless Horseman gallops into view atop Daredevil. Ichabod is stunned. He looks down to draw his pistol, but the Horseman roars by before he can raise it - a blast of air knocks Ichabod off his horse. After this, everything happens very quickly - the Horseman chases Philipse. Philipse looks over his shoulder. The Horseman draws his sword. Philipse gathers his courage and stops, turning. He raises his iron key talisman before him. The Horseman is closing...

Ichabod: Philipse!
Philipse holds the talisman up, trying to be fearless. The Horseman swings his sword upon the talisman and…Philipse's severed head spins. His body falls and folds. The two pieces of Philipse's Talisman, an Iron Key, fly through the air, toward Ichabod, who has only just managed to find his feet and find his fallen pistol. The Horseman turns Daredevil in a wide circle. Daredevil completes the turn, letting out a cry as the Horseman rides straight toward Ichabod. Before Ichabod has time to take aim, the Horseman is upon him and past him heading toward Philipse's corpse...leans effortlessly to skewer Philipse's head with his sword. With the head as his prize, the Horseman races away. Ichabod turns, watches the Horseman head to the forest. Ichabod stands, stricken…and then he faints.

Van Tassel House. Ichabod’s bedroom. Day. He gasps awake. A knocking is heard.
Baltus: (Off Screen) Constable Crane...?
Ichabod looks at his hand balled into a fist. He opens his hand - holds both halves of Philipse Iron Key Talisman. Young Masbath is seated by Ichabod's closed door. Katrina is backing up Baltus, who knocks again.

Baltus: Has he not come out at all?

Young Masbath shakes his head. Baltus enters the room. Katrina and Masbath follow him, cautiously. Ichabod sits up in bed, stunned, spaced out.

Ichabod: It was a Headless Horseman!
Baltus: You must not excite yourself.
Ichabod: But it was Headless Horseman!
Baltus: Of course it was.
Ichabod: No, you must believe me, it was Horseman! A dead one! Headless!
Baltus: I know, I know...
Ichabod: You don't know because you weren't there! But it's all true!
Baltus: Of course it is. I told you! Everyone told you!
Ichabod: (wildly) I saw him!

His eyes roll up and he faints. Katrina and Masbath look helplessly at each other.

Young Masbath: I suppose it's back to the City, then.

Katrina's reaction is mixed - glad that Ichabod will be safe, sorry if he leaves.

Ichabod’s dream. Forest. Day. A million white milk weed seedlings are floating in the sunlight. Young Ichabod's laughter is heard. We see that his Mother is blowing the seedlings for his delight. She gives him a milkweed pod and shows him how to do it for himself. Ichabod breaks the pod and releases another million. But when he looks around to share the delight, his Mother has gone...and he sees her disappearing among the trees. He goes to follow her. He can't see his Mother anywhere. Then he sees her standing in the middle of a circle of mushrooms growing in the Glade. Ichabod watches as his Mother turns inside the Mushroom Circle, almost dancing. He smiles. Then he sees his Mother stoop to pick a mushroom. She eats it. She looks happy. She drops a small piece of the mushroom. Ichabod sees it fall. He runs forward and picks it up before she sees him. Ichabod eats it. His Mother sees him, takes his hands in hers and dances around in a circle. As Ichabod whizzes around laughing, his point of view becomes the encircling trees whizzing around, and suddenly he seems to be surrounded by headless figures dressed all in black. Ichabod falls over dizzy and when he looks up he sees that the headless figures have become his Father, watching his Mother heedlessly dancing, his face like thunder. His Mother has loosened her clothes and is virtually barebreasted. His Father's eyes begin to glow like live coals as Ichabod cowers away from him.
The dream changes. Ichabod's house at night. His eyes are spying...through a crack in the kitchen door. He is wearing a nightshirt. Then we see his point of view, into the kitchen. His mother is seated, her head down. Father paces, chastising Mother angrily, his fist balled up in rage. The father continues berating the mother. He picks up his Bible off the table, waving it, then grabs the mother by the shoulders, forcing her to the floor... The father forces the mother to her knees. Mother is afraid, clasping her hands in front of her as Father forces her to pray. Father starts reading from the Bible. In Ichabod's dream, this is the same Bible from Baltus's house. Ichabod watches, afraid. He backs away, returning upstairs to his bedroom. A window is thrown open, thunder booming... Young Ichabod sits up in his bed. He goes to close the window, rain pouring in. He looks down... Below, in front of the home, a man drags Mother toward a coach. Two men stand watching, faces hidden under hat brims. Mother looks back, eyes pleading, struggling... His mother looks up to him. The two men look up to Young Ichabod: one is Father, and the third man is a Cotton Mather-ish man with a villainous face. Young Ichabod reaches helplessly toward Mother. Mother is forced into the coach. The Third Man speaks to Father, then walks to the coach. He gets onto the coach as the coach starts away. Father watches, rain flowing down his stony features. Lightning flashes... And we see the family cat watching with glowing eyes.

Van Tassel House. Ichabod’s bedroom. He wakes, breathing heavily. After a beat, he flings back the bedclothes and springs out of bed, energized by a new determination.

Downstairs…Baltus, Steenwyck, Doctor Lancaster and Notary Hardenbrook are having another meeting, this time with Lady Van Tassel and Katrina on hand with the drinks.

Baltus: Right - this time I'll go to New York myself and I won't be fobbled off with an amateur deductor.
Hardenbrook: (correcting him) Detector.
Steenwyck: (correcting) Deductive.
Dr. Lancaster: (doubting) No...no...
Baltus: (rising above it) An amateur sleuth! This time it's a magistrate that's dead, and –

The door is flung open. It's Ichabod ready for action, transformed, raring to go - with Young Masbath round-eyed just behind him.

Ichabod: Gentlemen! I need able men, to go with me to the Western Woods. Who will be the first to volunteer?
Baltus: You? We thought you'd shot your bolt.
Ichabod: A setback, merely. And yet, a step forward too - we now know who has done these terrible -
Steenwyck: You now know, we already knew –
Ichabod: (high on it) Quite so - and now it seems fate has chosen me to make my name in a case without parallel in the annals of crime - in short, to pit myself against a murdering ghost.
Katrina: (fearful for him) No, Ichabod - Constable -
Lady Van Tassel: (smiles) Do you intend to arrest him? Or impound his horse?

The Men chuckle indulgently.

Ichabod: Neither. To put an end to the killing. To discover the cause and remove it. Who's with me?

No one responds.

***
Woods. Day. Ichabod and Young Masbath ride alone...their horses loaded up for the expedition. Dark, gnarled and creepy woods. Ichabod and Young Masbath move through.

Ichabod: The Van Garretts, the Widow Winship...your father, Jonathan Masbath...and now Philipse... Something must connect them. Can you think?
Young Masbath: (shakes his head) We had no dealings with the magistrate that I know of.
Ichabod: And the widow? Your father knew her?
Young Masbath: (shrugs) Everyone knew Widow Winship.
Ichabod: In a manner of speaking, I trust.
Young Masbath: She would bring old Mr. Van Garrett a basket of eggs many a day.
Ichabod: Did your father have dealings with the Van Garretts?
Young Masbath: (surprised) He worked for them, we lived in the coach house. (Ichabod halts his horse, surprised) It's nothing - there were many servants...all dismissed now, of course. (Pause. They ride on) But there was something happened one night, a week before the murder. An argument upstairs between father and son, and my father was later sent for by Mr. Van Garrett.
Ichabod: An argument between father and son? (to himself, thoughtfully) After which, the elder Van Garrett summoned his servant, Masbath...
Young Masbath: (halts his horse and looks around) Listen.
Ichabod: I hear nothing.
Young Masbath: Nor I - no birds - no crickets…it's all gone so quiet...
Ichabod: (notes this nervously) You're right!

They break into a gallop and reach a hill crest. They stop, uneasy. Below, there is a cave with a rock archway. An ill-fitting door covers the mouth. The chimney spews smoke. Ichabod and Masbath share a fearful look. Someone is watching them…as they ride to the cave, following...Ichabod and Young Masbath dismount, tying their horses, then heading to the cave. They arrive at the cave door. Ichabod hesitantly knocks. Inside the cave, the door is ajar...Ichabod and Young Masbath step in... Walls are hung with skins and skeletons. Across the cave, a crone sits facing away, motionless. Ichabod and Young Masbath look to each other, fearful.

Ichabod: Pardon my intrusion...
Crone: (sits uninterested. Behind, Ichabod edges slowly forward) You are from the Hollow?
Ichabod: In a way, yes. I, um. (distracted by gourd bowls of dead insects, leaves, knives, scissors, yellowed bones) I should like to say...um...I make no assumptions about your occupation, no, your ways, witch - which - which are nothing to me... um...whatever you are, each to his own - um -
The Crone places something on a table beside her...a dead bird, a bright red cardinal. Ichabod backs away, but Masbath comes to stand beside him.
Young Masbath: Do you know of the Horseman, ma'am? The Hessian. (The Crone draws her finger across her neck.) That'll be him, miss.

Around her neck is a cord on which is threaded a carved stone, a mystic bauble. Ichabod notices it. The Crone stands, faces them, tall...points to Ichabod.

Crone: You, follow with me. (to young Masbath) Go out, child. Keep away. No matter what you hear, keep away.
The Crone takes a candle and heads deeper into the cave...She enters through a passage, Ichabod follows, terrified, bent under the low ceiling.

Ichabod: Um...what might he hear that he must keep away from?
Crone: Sit there. (He sits on a crooked stool. The Crone kneels with her back to him, grasps two metal cuffs with chains attached, slides these onto her wrists, testing them) He rides, to the Hollow and back. I hear him. I smell the blood on him.
Ichabod: Do...do you? Well...I'm here to find him and...er...make him stop...
Crone: You want to see into the netherworld...I can show you...
The Crone gathers straw in a pile on the floor, then gathers bowls, putting grass and powder on the pile, withering over it. She takes a jar from a table.
Ichabod: What...what are you doing?
She shakes one jar, pulls the lid off and upends it. A baby rat squirms, dazed. The Crone grips the bat, uses a knife to cut off its head, soaks the straw with blood.
Crone: Do not move or speak. When the other comes, I will hold him.

Using her candle, the Crone lights the straw pile.

Ichabod: The other?
Crone: Silence. (bends to inhale smoke) He comes now.

Ichabod would like to leave now. Outside, Young Masbath waits. Wind picks up, kicking leaves, sending them in swirls. Masbath holds himself against the chill. Back inside, the Crone slumps forward to the floor, suddenly immobile, still with her back to Ichabod. Wind howls through a hole/window. Ichabod looks around, uncertain, stands.

Ichabod: Excuse me...ma'am...? (The Crone remains motionless. The wind intensifies. Candles blow out. Ichabod inches closer...) Do you hear me?

The Crone suddenly jumps erect, spinning - a half-human, half-demon creature, black clawed hands reaching...Ichabod cries out, leaping backward...chains on the restraining cuffs around the creature's hands go taut, yanking the creature back. Ichabod knocks over a table of bones, hits the floor. The creature is chained, but still wants Ichabod. It shrieks. The creature's face still seethes from transformation.

Creature/Scone: You seek the warrior bathed in blood...the Headless Horseman... (Ichabod scrambles back as far as possible. The creature claws the rock floor, yearning.) Follow the Indian trail to where the sun dies. Follow to the Tree of the Dead... (The creature yanks, testing the chains. Behind, the bolt holding the chains slips...the wall cracks a little) Climb down to the Horseman's resting place. Do you hear?

Ichabod nods, quaking, aghast. He glances to the exit. The chain bolt gives more, coming loose. Ichabod flees toward the door. The creature howls, leaping...the chain bolt breaks. Ichabod cries out as he is tackled to the floor. It is only the crone lying on him; she has returned to human form, semiconscious. Ichabod desperately shoves her off, sprints out from the cave, past Young Masbath.

Ichabod: We are leaving.
Young Masbath: What happened?
Ichabod: (completely unnerved) We are leaving now. (scrambles onto Gunpowder, riding, glancing back. Young Masbath follows. They ride side by side into the woods. Calmer now, he quotes…) "Take the Indian trail... To the Tree of the Dead..."
Young Masbath: How will we recognize it?
Ichabod: Without difficulty I rather fear. And "Climb down to the Horseman's resting place..." she said.
Young Masbath: His...camp?
Ichabod: His grave. (A snapping branch is heard. Ichabod turns to look back, then whispers to Masbath) Quicken pace. (They ride faster. Farther on they charge over a hill. Ichabod halts Gunpowder, climbs clumsily off, handing the reins to Masbath.) Ride on.

Young Masbath obeys. Ichabod takes out his pistol and wades into forest growth, backtracking. Inside the forest, Ichabod moves through underbrush keeping low. A horse is heard snorting. Ichabod forges on, pushes through branches, fearful. He comes up behind a figure in a gray cloak on horseback, raising his pistol, cocking the hammer.

Ichabod: Halt and turn! I have a pistol aimed.

The figure stops, pushes off the cloak hood. It is Katrina.
Katrina: It is me.
Ichhabod: (lowers gun, shaken) Katrina...I might have killed you! Why have you come?
Katrina: Because no one else would go with you. (She smiles a little)
Ichabod: (he is heartened by her statement) I am now twice the man. (Ichabod takes her hand.) It is your white magic.

She is about to turn this moment into a kiss - but...

Young Masbath: (Off Screen) Pardon my intrusion...(Ichabod and Katrina look to see Masbath has backtracked.) I think you'd better come and look at this...

Ichabod and Katrina move to follow Young Masbath. Ichabod, Masbath and Katrina come into a clearing, slowing their horses...looking up in wonder at...the monstrously huge Tree of the Dead, at the clearing's center. Its branches reach far and wide, knotted and gross, like agony captured in wood sculpture.

Young Masbath: The Tree of the Dead.
Katrina: It does announce itself.

Ichabod dismounts, crossing a line beyond which grass and weeds will not grow. Young Masbath and Katrina dismount behind. They all walk toward the tree. Ichabod stares up into the endless, dead canopy of branches. There's a vertical wound in the bark, like a terrible suture, now healed and scarred. Ichabod approaches. He feels the mushy scar, picking at its scabs till sap begins to run. Red Sap. Ichabod fingers it, sniffs it.

Ichabod: Blood.
Katrina: The tree bleeds? How can it be?

Ichabod goes to where Katrina and Masbath wait with the horses, digs in a saddle bag for a hand axe.

Young Masbath: What is it?
Ichabod: Stay here.

At the trunk, Ichabod thumps the flat end of the axe against the suture. It sounds hollow. He begins to chop into the suture...pulls away loose bark. The tree drips more blood and a goo. Ichabod uses both hands on the axe to hack at the festering suture.

Katrina: What are you doing?
Ichabod: Just...keep where you are.

Katrina: My God...
Ichabod: He...he tries to take the heads back with him. They will not pass...
Katrina: We must leave this place.
Ichabod: (looks to the branches towering above) This is...a gateway, between two worlds...

He studies the ground, circling the trunk... Around the other side, Ichabod gets to his knees... He's found the Horseman’s sword: the grave marker, jutting out from the ground, rusted twenty years' worth, gripped by the tree trunk and vines.

Ichabod: (touching the ground) Climb down to the Horseman's resting place...(looks to Masbath) Bring the shovel. (He sees Katrina hugging the boy) Forgive me...I...
Young Masbath: (courageously recovers himself, wiping his eyes and nose on the back of his sleeve.) Yes, sir - the shovel... Two shovels and the rifle, I suggest.

Lantern light glows. Young Masbath's crouched, rifle across his knees. He watches the tree, looking up... High branches swarm with bats. Behind Masbath, Ichabod and Katrina dig up the shallow grave.

Katrina: This ground has been disturbed, the soil is loose.
Ichabod: (throws down his shovel. Young Masbath comes to the grave. Ichabod pulls at thick burlap cloth heavy with dirt...straining as it comes away. He drops the burlap, looking down, disbelieving.) Look...!

Katrina: The skull is gone. What does it mean?
Ichabod: (jumps out from the grave, snapping his fingers, energized) It means, my dear Miss Van Tassel, it means - yes! What exactly does it mean? It means, unless I am mistaken...it definitely means something - what that something is, only time will tell! But I sense that we are very close to the answer here, if only we had one more clue...

Ichabod is unaware that the ground is writhing around him.

Katrina: (Off Screen) Ichabod!

Ichabod turns, looks...Katrina and Young Masbath back away, because...the roots in the grave are alive, entwining around remains. Ichabod spins to the twisted tree. The vertical suture seethes, pulling inward...sucking Philipse's head back in and closing, bubbling. Ichabod bounds over the grave dirt pile, hastening Katrina and Young Masbath along as he flees across the field. At the tree, the suture swells. Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath pass where their panicked horses are tied to a fallen trunk, heading for cover. A rumbling is heard from the tree. It's wound suddenly bursts wide, spitting smoldering cinders. At the tree line, Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath take cover, looking back. From the tree wound, a glow brightens...till suddenly the Headless Horseman and Daredevil explode into existence... They hit the ground running. Ichabod watches the Horseman ride away, bolts of lightning striking the ground behind. The Horseman disappears into the forest.

Ichabod: (to Masbath) Did you see that?! (recovering) Take Katrina home!

Ichabod runs toward the horses.

Young Masbath: Constable!

Enter the wooden area. Night. The Horseman rips past on Daredevil. Ichabod rides as fast as Gunpowder is able. He ducks under foliage as he pursues. He sees...through the forest ahead: the sky’s lit up. Distant fire. The Crone's cave is on fire. Ichabod arrives on Gunpowder, horrified, struggling for control as Gunpowder rears, trying to see through black smoke. Ichabod dismounts, moving closer to the cave...suddenly he slips... Ichabod falls down a bloody rock, landing very close to the crone's headless body. Ichabod recoils, crawling away, looking to the carnage in terror. The corpse lies near the cave entrance. The jagged skin of the neck wound still bleeds. The ground and dead leaves around the corpse are thick with blood. Ichabod crawls back to the Crone, terrified...because he has seen a clue. The cord around the Crone's neck has been cut and the Carved Bauble is missing (along with the Crone's head). Ichabod hears a horse neighing in the trees...and the sound of the horse crashing through the undergrowth, departing...but he can see nothing.

***
Brom, Theodore and Glen are on patrol - Brom with his new rifle. They can hear the same horse crashing invisibly through branches, the sound of hooves. They can't tell where the sound is coming from. They look around nervously.
Brom: Split up! He won't get away.
The three of them gallop off in three directions. When they clear the frame there is a sound of deep rumbling, the sound we heard before Jonathan Masbath was murdered.

***
Killian’s Home. Small home. Killian, Thomas and Beth, Killian's wife, have finished supper. Beth clears plates as Killian picks his teeth with a knife. The same rumbling sound is faintly heard. The glasses on the table shiver audibly. Killian notices. Then the phenomenon stops. Killian continues picking his teeth. Thomas gets down from his chair. He goes to the fireplace to light a tallow wick, which he takes to the next room. Thomas plops on the floor and lights his lantern which has an outer sleeve of glass painted with silhouettes of lions and monsters. Thomas turns the lantern and looks to the walls where the creatures' shadows are cast. He roars for them, imagining them real and having a grand time. Back in the kitchen, Beth comes for dishes.

Beth: Don't pick teeth. You teach Thomas bad habits.
Killian: (pulls her to him, playful) I am a bad habit. There's nothing for it.
Beth: (kisses him) Oh, isn't there.

Forest. A black horse runs, hooves pounding the ground. The horse stops...it is Brom's horse, with Brom riding. Brom looks skyward. All around, the wind halts. A dead silence falls. Distant hoofbeats can be heard. Brom takes his long rifle from his shoulder, rides...

Killian’s Kitchen. Behind Killian, mantelpiece stones pulse, breathing. Demonic faces form, then disappear. Meanwhile, Thomas continues his fun, shadow animals circling him. Beth enters, looking at Thomas, smiling. The magic lantern suddenly stops spinning. Shadow creatures freeze. Beth looks up, noticing the ferocity of the wind. The smile leaves her face. The entire house creaks. Killian stands, looking up. The house creaks again, then suddenly the wind stops. Silence.

Killian: Beth...

Beth picks up Thomas. The magic lantern shadow creatures begin spinning anew, quickly, around and around. With a roar, the fire flares. Killian looks... In the leaping flames he seems to see - as we also seem to see - the illusion of demonic faces coming out of flames. Behind Killian, the door splinters inward. The Horseman steps in, a battle axe in each hand. Wind blasts…The door to the other room slams. Killian grabs a chair and hurls it. The Horseman swings, smashing it aside.

Killian: Beth...run! (Beth holds Thomas as she back away from the closed door. He screams from the kitchen) Get out!

Killian grabs an iron skewer from the fireplace, swings it to fend off a blow from the Horseman. The Horseman swings the other axe. Killian ducks. The axe cracks fireplace stone, throwing sparks. Killian lunges, jamming the skewer into the Horseman... The skewer comes through the Horseman's back. The Horseman swipes with the flat of one axe - pounds Killian aside. Killian hits the wall, bashing his head. Hits the floor. Beth kicks a carpet to reveal a trap door. The Horseman pulls the skewer out of his body, throws it. He goes to lift Killian by the hair with one hand, brings back the axe in the other hand. At the trap door, Beth lowers Thomas to stairs leading to a crawl space under the floorboards. Thomas is crying.

Beth: Hush - hush - quiet as a mouse, now.
Thomas: Mother...
Beth: You must hide.

Beth closes the trap door, frantically replacing the carpet. The room's door flies open..the Horseman strides in, carrying Killian's severed head. Beth shrieks. In the forest, Brom, on his horse, hears Beth's shriek. Beth's screams are abruptly cut off. Her body is heard hitting the floor above. Thomas sees the shadow of Beth's head rolling across the gaps in the floorboards above him, coming to rest with her hair showing, hanging down in the gap. Footsepts are heard. The Horseman's hands place Killian's and Beth's heads in a sack, cinching the sack shut. The Headless Horseman enters, bends to retrieve the battle axe he left. He stands. Long, silent pause. Thomas cowers, trembling. Quiet. The Horseman falls to his knees. He starts to chop at the floor with both axes. A hole appears as debris falls. Thomas looks up. He tries to crawl away. The Horseman's arm shoves through from above - grabbing Thomas and yanking him up through the hole.

Brom rides from the forest. Ahead, at Killian's house, among scattered homes on the outskirts of town, Daredevil rides up as the Headless Horseman walks out with his sack of heads. The Horseman ties the sack to his saddle and leaps up. The Horseman ignores Brom. But Brom refuses to be ignored. Brom puts his reins in his mouth, aims his rifle, firing. The slug blows the Horseman off Daredevil, exploding. Daredevil keeps going. The Horseman's smoldering body is left "face down." Brom halts his horse. He climbs down, pleased. The Horseman moves. Brom backs away, satisfaction diminishing. The Horseman rises to his knees. Brom falls to one knee, begins reloading. He fills the gun from his powder horn. The Horseman stands, unsheathes his sword and turns. The blast has exposed rotten flesh and maggot-infested muscle. Brom readies his ramrod, but there's no time. He rises, hefting his rifle, straight at the Horseman with a yell. The Horseman is on him. Brom swings the rifle, blocking. The battle is on, with Brom fending off the Horseman's sword with the rifle. Across the field, Ichabod and Gunpowder arrive. The Horseman makes a backhanded swing, knocks Brom's rifle away, sends Brom to the ground. The Horseman walks away from Brom. Ichabod sees this, registers it. Brom pulls a knife and throws it. The knife blade goes through the Horseman from back to front, like a spear thrust through a smoldering sack of rotten flesh. The Horseman pulls Brom's knife, blade first, from his chest and turns upon Brom. Brom scrambles up, flees, running toward Killian's. The Horseman throws the knife which imbeds itself into Brom's thigh. The Horseman strides to Brom. Ichabod closes in, pulling an unlit lantern off his saddle. The Horseman changes his sword grip, blade open...plants one foot on Brom's back, raising his sword to skewer. Ichabod arrives at full gallop - smashes the lantern into the Horseman - knocking the Horseman off Brom. In the distance, Theodore and Glen arrive on horseback. They halt where they are, watching. Brom runs, limping to Killian's house, a goal in sight: farm tools propped there. Brom grabs scythes with long curved blades, one in each hand. The Horseman rises. Ichabod leaps off Gunpowder, runs to Brom's side. Once more, the Horseman turns away.

Brom: I'll get him!

Brom grabs Ichabod's pistol. Ichabod grabs Brom's pistol arm.

Ichabod: Wait! Don't you see? He's not after us!

Brom shakes himself free and fires. The bullet rips through the Horseman's stomach to reveal putrid innards. The Horseman turns and strides back.

Ichabod: He is now!
Brom throws the pistol at the Horseman. Across the way, Theodore looks to Glenn, turns his horse and flees. Glenn follows Theodore away. Brom steps up, scythes ready. He and the Horseman go at it – Brom blocks axe and sword, deflecting blows. Ichabod grabs a long-handled sickle, circles them...swings the sickle. The Horseman blocks. The Horseman battles both men at once, catching blows. Ichabod's sickle is knocked out of his hand. Brom catches the Horseman's sword in one scythe, catches the axe handle in the other scythe. The Horseman flatfoot kicks Brom, sending him down. Brom picks up Ichabod's sickle and swings it. The blade embeds in the Horseman down to the hilt.

Ichabod: Now you've annoyed him.

The Horseman drops his axe, grasps the sickle handle. The handle slams Ichabod away. Ichabod crawls, shaking off the blow. The Horseman staggers, trying to pull the blade from his body.

Ichabod: We cannot win this.

Brom yanks Ichabod to his feet and grabs his scythes. As they flee, Ichabod grabs a wood-splitting axe from the stump where it's imbedded. Behind, the Horseman manages to extract the sickle, drops it. Brom and Ichabod head toward the covered bridge that leads across to the town square. The Horseman strides after...retrives his axe on the way. Brom and Ichabod start across. Ichabod must help support Brom as Brom limps. Behind, the Horseman picks up the pace, closing fast. Inside the bridge, Ichabod and Brom are halfway across. Footsteps are heard pounding. Ichabod glances back. The Horseman is not behind them. Ichabod and Brom looks up. The footsteps are on the roof, passing over! Ahead, at the mouth of the covered bridge, the Horseman leaps down, spinning in midair, lands, crouched. Ichabod and Brom halt. The Horseman rises. Ichabod releases Brom and moves forward, gripping his wood axe in both hands, swinging the axe downward. The Horseman swings his axe - splinters Ichabod's axe handle. The Horseman, axe in one hand, sword in the other, turns upon Brom, and in pulling Brom aside out of the path of the sword, Ichabod recieves a sword-thrust in the shoulder, which makes him scream out. The Horseman lifts his sword arm, throwing Ichabod and withdrawing the sword in one motion, Ichabod tumbles. Brom moves forward with scythes. The Horseman sets upon him with incredible ferocity - battling Brom back, striking so hard and fast it's hard for Brom to keep blocking. Ichabod tries to get up, but falls, looking up. The Horseman knocks one of Brom's scythes away, takes another swing - sends Brom spinning in a spray of blood. The Horseman stands over Brom's body, chopping with his sword. Our point of view grows blurry. The Horseman approaches Ichabod who is now at his mercy. The Horseman ignores Ichabod, strides past him. Ichabod takes a step back and collapses.

Fade to black.

***
Van Tassel House. Ichabod’s room. Candlelight. Ichabod, shirtless, feverish, opens his eyes. The wound at the top of his chest is raw but with the edges sealed shut. Ichabod is on his bed. Dr. Lancaster bends over him. Baltus Van Tassel observes.

Dr. Lancaster: Remarkable. A wound like this should have killed him...but it needs no stitch and there's hardly loss of blood.
Baltus: (sees Ichabod's eyes open) He stirs.

Ichabod tries to rise, looking around, collapses in pain.

Dr. Lancaster: You must be still...the fever is on you.
Ichabod: (weakly) Katrina...

Down in the kitchen…a woman is bent over the hearth, mumbling. We see it is Katrina, mumbling over a boiling beaker of milk and green leaves. There is a dead crow on the hearth, with one foot chopped off and a sharp knife lying alongside.

Katrina: (chanting, repeating the phrases) Nostradamus Mediamus, Milk Of Mercy In Media Nos Laudamas...

Katrina enters Ichabod’s room with the beaker of medicine. Baltus and Dr. Lancaster are bending over Ichabod, the Doctor trying to make Ichabod drink a livid green liquid from a shot glass.

Dr. Lancaster: It will restore you.
Ichabod: (closes his lips tight and refuses the drink - he doesn't trust Lancaster. Katrina comes to the bedside with her beaker. Ichabod sees her. He is in pain, feverish) I…I...tried to stop Brom but...
Katrina: (soothes him) Sssh...no one could have done more. Drink this down, it will make you sleep.
Ichabod: The Horseman was not set to kill Brom...or me... If Brom had not attacked him...
Baltus: Later. Rest now.
Ichabod: I have discovered something.
Baltus: (he and the Doctor glance at each other) These are ravings...
Ichabod: The Horseman does not kill for the sake of killing...he chooses his victims.
Katrina: Drink...

She holds the beaker to Ichabod's lips. He drains it and falls back on the pillow, closing his eyes. Baltus turns at a sound from the door. Lady Van Tassel has entered quietly. She comes to him anxiously and grips his hand.

Lady Van Tassel: What is it, Baltus?
Baltus: Nothing...nothing... Don't be troubled, my love.

They hold hands lovingly, staring at Ichabod, who has fallen asleep.

***
Ichabod dream sequence. Empty church. Young Ichabod enters, carries a lantern past pews. He hears a sound, moving behind a pew to hide. Ahead, across the church, a red door opens. Father and the villainous Third Man come out, shutting the door, speaking quietly. The Third man holds a piece of parchment paper. Father is ever emotionless. Ichabod watches them, ducking down to keep hidden. Father and the Third Man walk to leave down the aisle, passing close to Ichabod without seeing him. They exit, leaving Young Ichabod alone in the silent church. Young Ichabod rises, begins moving fearfully forward. He crosses through the church, going to the red door, opening it. Young Ichabod enters. The room contains torture devices: iron cuffs, thunb screws, knives and needles. There is a spiked chair, fitted with sharp spikes, adorned with straps for holding down the "accused." Young Ichabod backs away, terrified, then sees…A shaft of light cuts across a large, sarcophagus-like an Iron Maiden - where Mother’s eyes can be seen through the slit in the Iron Maiden's face. Open eyes. Dead eyes. Young Ichabod lets out a strangled cry, runs to the Iron Maiden, trying to pull it open, clawing at the lock. Finally, Young Ichabod backs away, choking on misery. He looks around in despair. He falls to his knees at the spiked chair, places his hands on the spikes, pressing. As he sobs, blood runs down from his hands. He looks down and sees the cat is there, looking up at him. The cat reaches up to rub its head against his face…

Ichabod, sobbing, has jerked up out of the dream straight into Katrina's embrace. She is sitting on the bed, holding him, calming him. She notices blood on his palms. She takes a plain linen handkerchief from her cuff and dabs at the blood.

Katrina: Hush...hush...you were dreaming.
Ichabod: (falls back on the pillow) Yes... a thing I had forgotten and would like not to remember.
Katrina: Perhaps the remembering is the hard road to peace of mind. What ails you, Ichabod?
Ichabod: I was well, it was the world that was ill. But since I came here...
Katrina: You were not a happy man when you came. I think your wound was deeper than the wound you received from the Horseman. (she puts her hand on his forehead) But your fever is broken, and though I cannot cure the world I would make you live happy in it... Tell me what you dreamed.
Ichabod: How I found my mother dead...how good and evil sometimes wear each other's clothes. She was an innocent, a child of nature, condemned...murdered...by my father...
Katrina: Murdered by?
Ichabod: Yes - murdered to save her soul! By a Bible-Black tyrant behind a mask of righteousness. I was seven when I lost my faith.
Katrina: What do you believe in, Ichabod?
Ichabod: Sense and reason, cause and consequence, an ordered universe. Oh lord, I should not have come to this place where my rational mind has been so controverted by the spirit world...
Katrina: Is there nothing you will take from Sleepy Hollow that was worth the coming here?

Their eyes meet.

Ichabod: No...not nothing. A kiss...and how rare a thing...a kiss from a lovely woman before she saw my face or knew my name.
Katrina: Yes, without sense or reason. (they hold still, perhaps about to kiss) It was a kiss on account.
Ichabod: (breaks the moment) Oh, God forgive me. I talk of kisses and you have lost your brave man Brom.
Katrina: I have shed my tears for Brom...and yet my heart is not broken. Do you think me wicked?
Ichabod: No. But perhaps there is a little bit of the witch in you, Katrina.
Katrina: Why do you say that?
Ichabod: Because you have bewitched me.

This time their held look turns into a passionate embrace...

Van Tassel Porch. Night. Young Masbath slowly opens the door to peer out. He walks out onto the porch, watching as across the lawn, a cloaked figure walks, carrying a lantern. The figure heads onto the long straight road, into the forest, lantern light dissipating. Young Masbath steps off the porch, in cautious pursuit.

***
Van Tassle House. Ichabod’s room. Morning. Ichabod awakes, rolls to find Lady Van Tassel at his bedside with food and drink. Ichabod covers himself with his sheets.

Lady Van Tassel: You slept like the dead.
Ichabod: You are too kind to me. I do not look to be served by the lady of the house.
Lady Van Tassel: (smiles) Nor would you be but that the servant girl has vanished.
Ichabod: Sarah?
Lady Van Tassel: Run away, like many more. People are leaving in fear without ceremony.
Ichabod: Where is...?
Lady Van Tassel: She watched over you till dawn. Now it is her turn to sleep.

Young Masbath enters as Lady Van Tassel goes out. Ichabod looks at his palms, which are stained with dried blood.

Ichabod: Help me. I am fit for another day, I think.
Young Masbath: (pours water for Ichabod to wash himself, and helps him into his clothes) Where are we going?
Ichabod: To the Notary's office.
Young Masbath: Why?
Ichabod: Because that is where I expect to find deposited…the last will and testament of the elder Van Garrett.
Young Masbath: You have thought of something…
Ichabod: ...of something you said, Young Masbath. The Widow Winship came many a day with a basket of eggs to Van Garrett who I understand had hens to spare. I begin to see. It was Van Garrett's child that the widow was carrying. And what news have you?
Young Masbath: I heard someone leaving last night. Looked like they headed to town, but I lost them in the woods.
Ichabod: You didn't see who?
Young Masbath: All I saw was their lantern.
Ichabod: (ponders, troubled, as Masbath brings him a shirt) The Horseman does the killing but, I believe, at the bidding of a mortal, someone of flesh and blood.
Young Masbath: What? What makes you say that?
Ichabod: The witch...the crone, when I happened upon her corpse, she lay in a pool of blood. Blood poured hard from her neck. The wound was not cauterized.
Young Masbath: Then, she was not killed by the Hessian. Someone only tried to make it seem so.
Ichabod: (nods) It was the settling of a private score. But the Horseman cuts heads to a different drum. The crone pointed us to what drives the Hessian - his skull has been stolen from his grave. The person who stole it has power over the Hessian. Here is why the Headless One has returned through the gate of the Tree of the Dead. He chops heads until his own is restored to him.
Young Masbath: But what person...?
Ichabod: A person who stands to gain by these murders.

***
Town Square. Church. Wagons, horses and townspeople swarm. A crowd empties the town's general store. Provisions are passed along, man to man, and loaded onto wheelbarrows. Ichabod and Young Masbath ride, passing many angry faces. All up and down the long straight road, home owners board up windows with lumber. Ichabod and Young Masbath stop, tying their horses in front of the "NOTARY." Ichabod looks off. Down the road, people head to the church. Much activity...

Ichabod: Sanctuary. Or, so they hope.

People carry supplies into the church, within the bordering wrought iron fence. Others work to build and erect massive wooden crosses. In the crowd here, Reverend Steenwyck spots Ichabod and Young Masbath, pushes past people, shouting.

Steenwyck: There he is! There...! (People begin to pay attention to Steenwyck as he climbs atop a crate, pointing toward Ichabod) The desecrater of Christian burial! Twice he met the Horseman, and kept his head! How is it so?

At the notary, Ichabod tries to ignore, heads inside, as a clod of earth hits him on the shoulder. In the churchyard, Steenwyck continues his rant.

Steenwyck: The Devil protects his own!

Inside the notary’s office who happens to be Hardenbrook...A small, untidy room with piles of dusty documents in great disorder. The Notary Hardenbrook looks at Ichabod with his one good eye. Young Masbath stands near.
Ichabod: I take it, Mr. Hardenbrook, that wills and testaments are held here on public record?
Hardenbrook: (scared, trying to act calm. He passes a document across the desk) I believe this is what you wish to see. Take it and go! (Ichabod scans the will of Peter Van Garrett) Van Garrett Senior left his estate to his next of kin, that is to say, to his only son. However, the son being murdered in the same instant...
Ichabod: The next of kin after the son would be the eldest of the line from Van Garrett's father's sister...none other than the Baltus Van Tassel: something else no one thought to mention!
Hardenbrook: Well, you have found your way to it, and I hope you will leave now before my windows are boken.

The crowd murmurs outside like angry bees. Ichabod flourishes the will.

Ichabod: I am not ready to leave. (Hardenbrook starts moaning and wringing his hands) A brick through your window is not what puts you in terror, Hardenbrook. There is something else. I saw your fear, and Steenwyck's and the doctor's, when you met at Philipse's house. Philipse paid with his head, and you fear for your own.
Hardenbrook: Yes, it's true! But we did not know it was a murdering plot when we were drawn in!
Ichabod: Drawn in by whom?!
Hardenbrook: Mercy upon me! We meant no harm to come to her!
Ichabod: No harm to come to whom?
Hardenbrook: (babbling) But the marriage made her next of kin...
Ichabod: Made who next of kin to whom?! I'm confused!
Young Masbath: He means old Van Garrett secretly married the Widow Winship.
Ichabod: (getting it) Of course! And Van Garrett made a new will, leaving everything to her and his unborn child. So she stood between Baltus and the legacy! Where is the will?
Hardenbrook: I cannot be seen to help you. The Horseman will come for me!
Ichabod: I will not leave without the very last will and testament of…

Hardenbrook digs into a mountain of documents, hurling handfuls into the air...and flings the second will at Ichabod. Young Masbath nervously checks the door.

Hardenbrook: Go, then! I am a dead man! (He starts to sob)
Young Masbath: Sir...
Ichabod: (reading) Young Masbath...I know why your father died. That night when Van Garrett quarreled with his son, Jonathan Masbath was summoned upstairs to witness the new Will. Here is your father's signature. It was his death warrant. (Young Masbath takes the document and looks at it tearfully) But the secret was not safe. Mrs. Killian the midwife was forewarned the baby was coming, and so she, too, had to die. (One of the other hurled documents has fluttered down fortuitously in front of Ichabod. He picks it up.) The marriage certificate. Parson Steenwyck married them. Dr. Lancaster confirmed the widow was pregnant. She told the secret to Magistrate Philipse. Notary Hardenbrook concealed the documents. (Hardenbrook snivels and moans and wrings his hands) And you all kept silence! Why? For some nameless dread of the man who stood to gain by it? Baltus Van Tassel!

***
Van Tassel House. Ichabod and Young Masbath start up the stairs, noticing Baltus, alone, with a glass of liquor, is brooding over an oak coffer of silver coins, running them through his fingers. Ichabod continues with Young Masbath, speaking quietly.

Young Masbath: I think there is some error in your reasoning.
Ichabod: (politely) Really? Do give me the benefit of your...
Young Masbath: All these murders just so that Baltus Van Tassel should inherit yet more land and property?
Ichabod: Precisely. Men murder for profit. Possibly you don't know New York?

He sees his bedroom door is ajar. His entry surprises Katrina, sitting at Ichabod's desk, reading his Ledger.

Ichabod: Katrina. Why are you in my room?
Katrina: (smiles) Because it is yours. Is it wicked of me?
Ichabod: No...no...
Katrina: I missed you. Where did you go?
Ichabod: To the Notary. I had questions to ask Hardenbrook.
Katrina: And did you learn anything of interest?
Ichabod: (he and Young Masbath exchange a glance) Well...perhaps.
Katrina: My father...
Ichabod: (jumps) Your father?
Katrina: Yes. My father thinks you should return to New York.
Ichabod: Really? Why is that?
Katrina: (smiles) I don't know. Perhaps he looked in your ledger and did not like what he saw.

She leaves the Ledger open on the desk. Ichabod steps over to look. Young Masbath cranes his neck to look. It is a page of doodles with the name "Katrina" written several times, and a sketch of Katrina. Embarrassed Ichabod closes the Ledger.

Katrina: He believes townfolk and country do not mix.

Ichabod opens the drawer in the desk and puts away the document he took from the Notary. He is nervous because he knows they point to complicity by Katrina's father. Young Masbath, watching, understands this, Ichabod locks the drawer and pockets the key.

Katrina: What have you there?
Ichabod: Evidence. I'm sorry, I must ask your...
Katrina: Then I will leave you to your thoughts. Sleep well.

Katrina leaves. Ichabod is troubled. Then to add to his troubles, he suddenly sees a huge spider scuttling under his bed. He doesn't like spiders, even small ones. He gives a yelp.

Young Masbath: It's only a spider.
Ichabod: Where's it gone? Where's it gone? Can you see it?
Young Masbath: (crouches to look under the bed. He frowns, puzzled) There's something under there...
Ichabod: Kill it! Kill it! (getting a grip) No -- no...er...stun it...
Young Masbath: Help me move the bed. (Young Masbath and Ichabod move the bed) Look. (Under the bed, is revealed a strange pentagram drawn in chalk) The Evil Eye!
Ichabod: What? What is...?
Young Masbath: It is someone casting spells against you.
Ichabod: The Evil Eye.

The spider is sitting on the Pentagram. Later that night…oung Masbath, fully dressed, sleeps on the bed. Ichabod sits waiting. He takes the cover off the lantern, looks at a clock. Midnight. Ichabod hears a door open and close, then a creak on the stairs. He lights a candle. Then he goes to wake Young Masbath. They come out of the room and head downstairs with a lantern, cautious. As they walk, a creaking floorboard is heard from another room and Ichabod quickly covers his lantern. Light comes from under a door. Footsteps are heard, then a door opening and closing. Outside. Lantern light moves, far ahead. Ichabod and Young Masbath follow, fearful, keeping hidden on a hillside.

Ichabod: Wait here.

Ichabod advances, up the hill. He peers forward to see the lantern sitting on a rock. On a blanket, a semi-naked man and semi-naked woman are in the midst of rough sex. Ichabod crawls to peer from underbrush. The couple keeps coupling, the man on top. His grunts and gasps are particularly desperate. He's all over the woman, who lays back...it is Lady Van Tassel. Ichabod swallows. Lady Van Tassel pulls down the man's shirt, exposes his flesh. She raises a small, sharp knife behind his back. Ichabod's eyes widen. He's about to shout a warning, but Lady Van Tassel brings the blade to her own hand, slicing deep into her palm. Blood flows. She rubs her cut hand over her partner's arching back, smearing blood. Lady Van Tassel caresses the man's chest, neck, face...trailing blood. The man lifts his head, in ecstasy, sucking the woman's bloody fingers...it's Reverend Steenwyck! Ichabod backs away, having seen more than enough. He returns to find Young Masbath's.

Young Masbath: What was there?
Ichabod: Something I wish I had not seen. A beast with two backs.
Young Masbath: A beast with…? What next in these bewitched woods?!

They return to Ichabod’s room. He sees that his desk drawer is slightly open. He opens the drawer knowing the worst. The documents have been taken. Masbath suddenly sniffs the air. He signals to Ichabod, alert. He sniffs again...and in the grate is the source of the smell: the documents burned to ashes. Ichabod, in despondency, brings his finger to his head, rubbing his temples.

Van Tassel House. Kitchen. Day.

Lady Van Tassel: She will not see you.

She is talking to Ichabod. Her hand is loosely bandaged.

Ichabod: Did she say...anything?
Lady Van Tassel: Only that she will not come down.
Ichabod: I see. Thank you. (he turns to go)
Lady Van Tassel: Constable, you have not asked me how I hurt my hand since yesterday...which would have been polite. In fact you have been as careful not to look at it as not to mention it. (She strips off the bandage to show a roughly sewn cut)
Ichabod: Yes. I'm sorry. How did you...?
Lady Van Tassel: (grabs Ichabod by the wrist, tight, whispering close) I know you saw me.
Ichabod: What?
Lady Van Tassel: I know you followed last night. You must promise not to tell my husband what you saw...promise me! (Ichabod tries to pull away, but she grips tighter. The front door is heard slamming. Ichabod is panicky) Reverend Steenwyck has power over me.
Ichabod: P-p-power?
Lady Van Tassel: He knows something terrible against my dear husband - what you witnessed was the price of Steenwyck's silence.
Ichabod: What does Steenwyck know?

Footsteps approach the door, the handle turns.

Lady Van Tassel: Later. Later...

She pulls away just as Baltus enters.

Baltus: The town is in a ferment. Horror piled on tragedy - Hardenbrook is dead. Strangled.

Baltus goes straight to a flagon on the side table and lifts it to his lips. Ichabod stares at Baltus's strong hands gripping the neck of the flagon.

Lady Van Tassel: Oh! That harmless old man?
Baltus: Hanged himself in the night!
Ichabod: Hanged himself?
Baltus: Reverend Steenwyck has called a meeting at the church tonight. Every man, woman and child. (to Ichabod) He will speak against you. If you are wise you will be gone from here. Steenwyck's congregation is already halfway to being a mob.
Ichabod: I will go when I have done what I came to do.
Baltus: (Notices Lady Van Tassel’s wound) What is this?
Lady Van Tassel: I was careless with the kitchen knife…
Baltus: The wound looks angry.
Lady Van Tassel: I'll bind it later with wild arrowroot flowers. I know where I'll find some. Will you ride with me?

Ichabod slips silently out of the room and goes upstairs. He knocks softly at Katrina's door. No answer. He quietly opens the door. Katrina's bed has been slept in but it's empty and she is not there. But in the grate there is the telltale heap of charred paper and ash, recognizable as Ichabod's documents. A sound at the door makes him whip around. It is Young Masbath.

Young Masbath: I saw her riding away towards the old pasture.

***
Windmill. Day. A small pile of straw burns. Gloved hands unfold a paper filled with hair clippings, which are sprinkled on the fire. A cloaked figure kneels at the pile. This person removes a human skull from a cloth bag. The skull is placed at center in the flames. It's teeth are sharp, cut to points - the Horseman’s skull.

***
Van Tassel Estate. Fields. Day. Ichabod rides Gunpowder, approaching the ruined cottage. He finds Katrina crouched over the hearthstone. Her horse grazes. She hears his horse and turns.

Ichabod: Katrina. (He dismounts. Katrina had made a small fire. She is doing magic. Mumbling. She turns to look at Ichabod in anger and tears) You took the papers and burned them?
Katrina: So that you would not have them to accuse my father!
Ichabod: I...I accuse no one...but if there is guilt I cannot alter it no matter how much it grieves me...and no spells of yours can alter it either.
Katrina: If you knew my father you would not have such harsh thoughts about him! No, nor if you felt anything for me!
Ichabod: (in torment) I am pinioned by a chain of reasoning! Why else did his four friends conspire to conceal?
Katrina: You are the Constable, not I. So find another chain of reasoning and let me be.
Ichabod: I cannot. Not the one or the other. I am heartsick with it.
Katrina: I think you have no heart. And I had a mind once to give you mine. (She mounts her horse, her full of anger and tears)
Ichabod: (cries out)Yes!! I think you loved me that day when you followed me into the Western Woods! To have braved such peril!
Katrina: (scornfully) What peril was there for me if it was my own father who controlled the Headless Horseman?! Good-bye, Ichabod Crane! I curse the day you came to Sleepy Hollow!

Ichabod watches her gallop away and hides his anguished face for comfort in Gunpowder's neck.

***
Van Tassel Field. Evening. A distant bell is tolling as Baltus waits on his horse, watching where Lady Van Tassel can be glimpsed among the spaced trees gathering arrowroot flowers.

Baltus: (calls out) Come. Hurry up! The meeting bell has started toning.

He looks anxiously toward the trees...where to his horror he sees the Headless Horseman moves slowly toward Lady Van Tassel, calmly unsheathing his sword.

***
Sleepy Hollow Church. Night. People are entering the Church while the bell tolls them in watched grimly by Steenwyck. In the shadows, Ichabod, hatted and cloaked to make himself look anonymous, also watches the people going by and sees Katrina among them. Baltus comes charging through the town square on his horse.

Baltus: The Horseman! (He is barely hanging on. He stops, falling off his horse, scrambling toward Katrina, who is not far from Ichabod) Save me!
Katrina: Father?
Baltus: He killed her. (grabs Katrina, deathly afraid) The Horseman has killed your stepmother!

Hoofbeats are heard and the screechy cry of Daredevil. Baltus looks on as the Horseman rides into view, giving chase. Instant mayhem. Tthe few people in the churchyard flee, heading for the Church. Baltus runs toward the Church.

Katrina: Father!

Katrina chases after Baltus. Ichabod now sees that his case is falling apart. He and Young Masbath start running to the Church. The gatherers in the pews react to the commotion, shouting, some running to the windows, to the doors. Baltus pushes through the iron gate, across the churchyard, bounding up the stairs, Katrina following him. The Horseman rides behind. Ichabod, with Masbath, follow into the churchyard. Ichabod glances back.

Ichabod: (to Young Masbath) I know what you are thinking.
Yonug Masbath: It seems Baltus Van Tassel is not the one who controls the Horseman.

As the Horseman reaches the open gate, Daredevil rears up violently, snorting, unwilling to enter. Baltus makes his way into the church, shoving people aside. Men pass rifles from stockpiles and climb onto pews at the boarded windows. Women herd children into a cellar. Baltus searches for a hiding place, moves toward the back. Katrina moves through, following Baltus. At the front of the Church, Ichabod squeezes in just as the front doors are forced shut. Ichabod surveys the madness, Ichabod runs to a window, looking out between boards. At the church yard gates, the Horseman grabs Daredevils reins, tries to move forward again. Same result - Daredevil freaks. The Horseman gives his axe an underhand toss to the ground inside the gate. The axe instantly begins to degrade - like dust in the rain. The Horseman steers away, keeping outside the fence. Ichabod comes away from the window, looking to the mass of panicked citizens. He sees Katrina pushing up the aisle heading toward Baltus. Katrina turns to Ichabod, her face aflame with accusation. Ichabod is humbled, desperate to make it up but Katrina runs toward the Altar, where she prostrates herself in despair. Men at the windows begin firing the rifles. The Horseman circles, under fire. Great clouds of gun smoke shoot from the Church. Men fire down from the belfry. Parts of the Horseman and Daredevil splatter red as slugs hit, without effect. At the other side of the Church, The Horseman circles, heading to the town square. Riflemen shout to each other, running to the opposite windows to follow the Horseman. Young Masbath grabs a rifle, leaps to join the brigade. Baltus is trying to force his way to one of the cellar doors, when Steenwyck grips him angrily, shoves him.

Steenwyck: You'll kill us all! (Baltus stumbles back, topples pews) You're the one the Horseman wants.

Steenwyck grabs Baltus, dragging him to the front. Ichabod's pushing past people, trying to get to them. The Horseman brings Daredevil to a halt, yanks a large coil of rope off a hitching post, turns to ride back. Baltus pulls free from Steenwyck, falls to the floor again.

Steenwyck: Why should we die for you? Get out!

Others join the rage, pulling Baltus toward the front of the Church, shouting. Ichabod joins in, struggling to push people off of Baltus.

Ichabod: Stop this! (Ichabod gets to Baltus's side, trying to protect) The Horseman cannot enter! It does not matter who he wants, he cannot cross the gate!

At the windows, one rifleman cries out: He's coming back!

More panic. Steenwyck points toward Baltus.

Steenwyck: We have to save ourselves...!
Baltus: (pulls the pistol from Ichabod's holster) No! Unhand me! Stand off!

Baltus brandishes the gun. Everyone backs off. The Horseman rides past the front, fired upon. The Horseman halts along a length of the wrought gate, reaches, and yanks off one iron post, which is pointed on top, like an arrow head. Baltus holds everyone away with the pistol, enraged.

Baltus: The next person to lay hands on me will have a bullet.
Dr. Lancaster: (pushes his way between Steenwyck and Baltus) Enough have died already! (to Steenwyck meaningfully) It is time to confess our sins and ask God to forgive our trespasses!
Steenwyck: Don't be a fool! I warn you, Dr. Lancaster!
Baltus: (to Dr. Lancaster) What is it that you know?
Dr. Lancaster: (to Baltus) Your four friends played you false. We were devilishly possessed by onewho –

That's as far as he gets before Steenwyck wrenches a heavy ornate cross from the wall and smashes his skull with a blow of tremendous force, with the cross. Baltus fires and blasts a hole in Steenwyck's stomach. Everyone backs farther away as Steenwyck falls. Steenwyck lays gasping, eyes huge. He tries to crawl. Katrina rises to her feet and stands; staring wide-eyed at the horror. Ichabod moves toward her. Steenwyck lays still with a bloody gurgle, face down. Baltus looks to all the horrified people around him.

Baltus: There is conspiracy here! And I will seek it out!

Suddenly a crash…the iron post comes spearing through a window, trailing rope, skewers Baltus from behind: its bloodied point bursting out through his breastbone. Baltus gasps, stunned...he drops the gun, looks down to clutch the post. Blood streams out of his mouth. Ichabod catches Katrina as she swoons. Horrorstruck, he hugs her and thus notices that hanging on a ribbon around her neck is the little carved bauble taken from the neck of the dead Crone. Almost at the same time, Ichabod sees that on the flagstones where Katrina was lying there is now a drawing done in chalk, identical to the "Evil Eye" drawing he found under his bed.

Ichabod: (gasps) The Evil Eye again! (At that moment, a piece of White Chalk falls from Katrina's senseless hand.) Oh God! It was you!

The full horrible implication of this hits Ichabod just as the rope tied to the post suddenly yanks Baltus backward with incredible force, slams him into the window and he crashes backward through the window, hits the ground, dragged. The Horseman rides Daredevil away from the church, with the rope tied around Daredevil's saddle pommel. Baltus slams the fence. The rope snaps. Baltus is held there awkwardly, gurgling blood.

Ichabod: (holding Katrina, cries out) Oh...Katrina...Oh God, forgive her.

The Horseman turns Daredevil, riding back, his sword raised high, he chops off Baltus's head.

***
Van Tassel House. Night. Katrina lies insensible in her bed. The ribbon with the bauble around her neck. Ichabod stands watching her, alone with his grief and his appalling secret.

Ichabod: It was an evil spirit possessed you. I pray God it is satisfied now, and that you find peace. Good-bye, Katrina. The Evil Eye has done its work. My life is over. Spared for a lifetime of horrors in my sleep, waking each day to grief.

Ichabod leaves the room, closing the door. Ichabod, watched only by Young Masbath, stands by a fire burning in a circle of rocks nearby. He has his Ledger. After a moment, he throws the ledger onto the fire. The pages catch quickly. He opens his satchel and digs out a book. His luggage is packed on the porch. He walks back to the fire, looks at the book in his hand, the book Katrina gave him. He stands staring down. A coach is arriving. The coach with Gunpowder as one of its team, waits, loaded with Ichabod's baggage. Van Ripper, the driver, helps Ichabod with strapping the load. Young Masbath watches, not helping. Ichabod turns to Young Masbath. Angry tears come to Young Masbath's eyes. The farewell is like an argument.

Young Masbath: But who will look for the truth when you have gone?
Ichabod: There is no more truth to be found. That is why I can go and leave this wretched place behind me.
Young Masbath: You think it was Katrina, don't you?
Ichabod: (clamps his hand over Young Masbath's mouth. He looks intently into his eyes) That can never be uttered. Never. (Ichabod takes his hand away)
Young Masbath: A strange sort of witch! With a kind and loving heart! How can you think so?
Ichabod: I have a good reason.
Young Masbath: Then you are bewitched by reason.
Ichabod: I am beaten down by it! It's a hard lesson for a hard world, and you had better learn it, Young Masbath. Villainy wears many masks, none so dangerous as the mask of virtue. Farewell!

Van Ripper climbs onto the coach. Ichabod looks to the Manor House. Only one light shines, in a second floor window. lchabod climbs into the coach. Inside the coach Ichabod slumps. He pounds twice on the coach wall. Van Ripper whips the reins. The coach starts. Young Masbath watches, wiping tears. Upstairs, Katrina wakes. She hears the Coach Wheels. She gets up from the bed and goes to the window. She see the coach leaving. Katrina's face shows that her world has collapsed around her.

Van Ripper's coach crosses the covered bridge, past the town square, past the church. Near Dr. Lancaster's house, the coach passes a flat cart. On which lies the headless corpse of Lady Van Tassel. Ichabod looks at the corpse and he notes the gashed palm of one dead hand. The cart is being pulled at a walking pace by a single horse. The cart man walking, holding the bridle. The cart man pauses, seeing a rider approaching, traveling in the same direction as Ichabod's coach. Ichabod realizes that the rider is Katrina. He looks from the coach window and sees Katrina get down from the horse and go to the cart. Ichabod pulls back from his window and closes his eyes.

***
Van Tassel House. Ichabod’s room. Young Masbath enters, looks around the empty room. He goes to sit, crosses his arms on the desk and lays down his head. Katrina enters the house. She crosses, slumps in a chair, staring into the burning fireplace. Various rooms are shown. Camera moves slowly through the house. Someone’s searching various rooms.

In the coach, Ichabod opens his satchel, takes out a bottle of water and gulps from it. In replacing the bottle, he finds...the Book given him by Katrina. He opens the book. There is a diagram drawing on a whole page. Ichabod recognizes...the drawing of the supposed "Evil Eye," identical to the two we have seen before. But what gets Ichabod's real attention is the bold "headline." The Headline over the Picture is "For The Protection of A Loved One Against Evil Spirits." Ichabod gasps, and mutters the words aloud.

Ichabod: (to himself) But then, who? (He is puzzled. He stares at his open palms. The scars on his palms trigger a thought. He slides the front window panel to shout through it.) Van Ripper, turn the coach!
Van Ripper: What?
Ichabod: Turn around, now!

***
Van Tassel House. Someone still moves through the house, moving through rooms on the ground floor. Stopping at the doorway of the parlor, looking to where Katrina is seated across the room.

***
Dr. Lancaster’s Medical Room. Mrs. Lancaster comes to answer banging on the door. She opens the door and Ichabod pushes past, satchel in hand, taking Mrs. Lancaster's lantern.

Ichabod: Pardon my intrusion.

There are two coffins on the floor. Ichabod throws off the lids from the coffins, looking to the headless bodies of Baltus and Lady Van Tassel.

***
Back at the Van Tassel House. Katrina still sits, her eyes closed. A figure in black moves forward in the darkness behind.

***
Back at Dr. Lancaster’s Med. Room. Ichabod goes to lift Lady Van Tassel's hand with the gash on its palm, bends to study, pulling at the sewn wound, pulling the stitches apart between his thumbs. Mrs. Lancaster watches.

***
Van Tassel House. Katrina hears a board creak. She sits up, turning.

Katrina: Who is it?

***
Doctor’s Med. Room. Ichabod releases the corpse's hand, tears off his spectacles, shaken by the realization.

Ichabod: No bloodflow, no clotting, no healing. When this cut was made, this woman was already dead.

Ichabod grabs his satchel, bolts out the door.

***
Van Tassel House. The figure moves closer in darkness.

Katrina: Who is there?
The figure comes into the dim, flickering fire light. Lady Van Tassel.
Lady Van Tassel: Dear step daughter. (Katrina stands, terrified, trying to form words. Lady Van Tassel cackles like a witch) You look as if you've seen a ghost.
Katrina's eyes roll up as she faints dead away to the floor.

***
Ichabod runs out from the doctor’s residence, leaps up onto the empty coach, pushing Van Ripper's rifle aside. Van Ripper's urinating against the side of the building.
Van Ripper: Be with you in a minute, Constable.

Ichabod whips the horses, driving the coach away. Van Ripper frowns in confusion.

***
Windmill. Night. The interior of the windmill is large and shadowy, with lots of old junk, clutter, machinery, boxes, etc. Katrina lies unconscious. Lady Van Tassel comes to cut off a clump of Katrina's hair with scissors grinning as she does it. A conjuring pile has been prepared, containing a small animal’s heart with an iron nail through it. Lady Van Tassel adds Katrina's hair, lights the pile off a lantern. Lady Van Tassel whispers over the fire. She looks to Katrina, who stirs. Lady Van Tassel takes the Horseman’s skull from a bag over her shoulder, places it in the flames. Thunder is heard.

Lady Van Tassel: (whispers and chants) Rise up once more, my Dark Avenger! Rise up! One more night of beheading! Rise up with your sword, and your Mistress of the night will make you whole, a head for a head, my unholy Horseman. Rise - rise - rise from the earth, come forth again through the Tree of the Dead...come now for...Katrina!

***
Tree of the Dead. The wind scatters dead leaves. The tree opens wide with a rumble – shafts of light shooting out.

***
Ichabod drives the coach hard ahead.

***
At the windmill, Katrina sits up, groggy, looking around...sees the dying fire, and Lady Van Tassel watching her.

Lady Van Tassel: Awake at last. Did you think it was all a nasty dream? Alas, no.
Katrina: My father saw the Horseman kill you.
Lady Van Tassel: He saw the Horseman coming to me with his sword unsheathed! But it is I who govern the Horseman, my dear, and Baltus did not stay to see.
Katrina: But there was your body!
Lady Van Tassel: The servantgirl, Sarah, I always thought her useless, but she turned, out useful. Tomorrow I'll totter out of the woods and spin a tale how I found Baltus and Sarah in the act of lust...as I watched, the Horseman was upon them, and off went Sarah's head! I fainted and remember nothing more.
Katrina: Who are you?
Lady Van Tassel: My family name was...Archer.
Katrina: (remembering the cottage hearth) The Archer...
Lady Van Tassel: I lived with my father and mother and my sister in a gamekeeper's cottage not far from here. (conversation is being heard by a moving point of view among the shadows) Until one day, my father died, and the landlord who received many years of loyal service from my parents evicted us. No one in this God-fearing town would take us in... (The spy is revealed to be Young Masbath, holding his breath) ...because my mother was suspected of witchcraft. (Young Masbath looks about for a weapon. His eyes alight on a large wooden mallet) She was no witch, but I believe she knew much that lies under the surface of life...and she schooled her daughters well while we lived as outcasts in the Western Woods. She died within a year...and my sister and I remained in our refuge, seeing not a soul...until, gathering firewood one day, we crossed the path of the Hessian...

Flashback to the forest battlefield. The Hessian Horseman has happened upon two young girls gathering firewood. The girls stand frozen at the sight of him, till one girl drops her firewood and runs. The second girl remains, holding the Horseman's gaze.

Lady Van Tassel: I saw his death, and from that moment…

Flashback to the girl watching the burial of the Horseman...and his head dropping into the grave.

Lady Van Tassel: ...I offered my soul to Satan if he would raise the Hessian from the grave to avenge me.

Outside…Young Masbath, unseen, works his way quietly around behind Lady Van Tassel.

Katrina: Avenge you?
Lady Van Tassel: Against Van Garrett, who evicted my family, against Baltus Van Tassel who, with wife and simpering girlchild, stole our home. I swore I would make myself mistress of all they had. (she cackles again) The easiest part was the first – to enter your house as your mother's sick nurse and put her body into the grave, and my own into the marriage bed. (Katrina cries out in horror) Not quite so easy was to secure my legacy...but lust delivered Reverend Steenwyck into my power. Fear did the same for the Notary Hardenbrook. The drunken Philipse succumbed for a share of the proceeds, and the Doctor's silence I exchanged for my complicity in his fornications...

Masbath moves into the open, weapon raised. Katrina sees him and stifles a gasp.

Katrina: (keeping Lady Van Tassel's attention) Yes! You have everything now.
Lady Van Tassel: No, my dear. You do, by your father's will. But I get everything in the event of your death. (she cackles again and reaches for the Mystic Bauble on Katrina's neck. She rips it free) This pretty bauble, which I so kindly gave you to wear, has done it's work. My sister, by the way, sadly passed away...

Flashback. Outside crone’s cave home. The Crone falls to the ground outside her cave, unconscious, beaten and bloodied. A hand - Lady Van Tassel's hand – enters frame to haul the Crone up by the hair, and we see the Crone's bloodied features face to face with the wicked smile of Lady Van Tassel.

Lady Van Tassel: ...quite recently.

Flashback. Lady Van Tassel holds a sword high, swings down... Then we see the separated head and torso...and the severed cord, which had been around the Crone's neck...and Lady Van Tassel's Hand reaching for the Mystic Bauble, which had fallen free.

Young Masbath is about ready to bring the mallet down upon Lady Van Tassel's head.

Katrina: (keeping Lady Van Tassel's attention) It was the Crone you killed...your own sister...
Lady Van Tassel: She brought it upon herself… (Lady Van Tassel turns cackling at Young Masbath) …by helping you and your master! (Young Masbath shrieks and drops the mallet.) You are just in time to have your head sliced off!

Katrina and Young Masbath run to each other for mutual comfort. Lightning brightens the forest. Lady Van Tassel looks up.

Lady Van Tassel: The Horseman comes. And tonight he comes for you!

Katrina and Young Masbath are holding hands, scared. Lady Van Tassel picks up the Horseman's skull in her gloved hand and puts up her face and gives out a long animal howl. Distantly, Daredevil is heard answering with a scream. Katrina and Young Masbath run. Lady Van Tassel has need to stop them.

Lady Van Tassel: Run! There is no escape!

***
Van Tassel House. Ichabod leaps from the coach, bounds up porch stairs...

Ichabod: Katrina!

Ichabod stops, sees firelight at the Windmill. He runs...leaps back up to the coach and takes off towards it. At the windmill, Lady Van Tassel stands in the doorway with the skull in one hand, laughing. Katrina and Young Masbath break out into the open. Ichabod drives toward them.

Katrina: Ichabod!
Ichabod: (meets them, halts the coach and jumps down and puts his arms around them) Thank God.

Lady Van Tassel's mad laughter is heard. Ichabod and Katrina turn as Lady Van Tassel rides from around the windmill on her white horse. She shrieks with laughter. Along the treeline, the Horseman breaks into the open.

Lady Van Tassel: Have you come back to arrest him after all?!
Ichabod: (thinks fast, moving to the windmill, leading Katrina and Young Masbath along with him.) Quickly!
Lady Van Tassel: (wind tosses her dress and hair. She holds the Horseman's skull high) Mind your hat, Constable!

Young Masbath scurries up the ladder and in. Katrina's next. Ichabod looks behind... The Horseman is almost upon them. Ichabod follows Katrina, pulling himself up. The Horseman arrives, dismounting, moving forward. Ichabod leaps up, lifts the heavy trap door on its hinges, slams it. The door is pounded from outside, buckling.

Young Masbath: It won't hold.

Ichabod goes to a large grindstone against a wall. He struggles to roll it. Young Masbath helps him roll it to the trapdoor. It falls on top with a thus. Masbath jumps back as the Horseman's sword jabs up through the grindstone's center hole. The sword withdraws. Pounding begins anew. The Horseman chops at the door with his axe. Katrina and Young Masbath back away. Ichabod holds his lantern up, desperate for ideas, searching. Above, to the right, is the high milling platform , where grain is ground and bagged, and a ladder leading to it. To the left is the crooked, open staircase. Ichabod picks up a bailing hook, a plan forming. He gives his lantern to Katrina and points.

Ichabod: Get up these stairs. Open the door to the roof and wait.

Katrina and Young Masbath obey, heading left. Ichabod crosses to the right, starts climbing the ladder to the milling platform. On the platform, Ichabod grasps a wooden lever, pulling it. The entire windmill creaks and groans as massive gears and wheels above begin to turn. The windmill's rotors slowly begin spinning. Under the windmill, the Horseman keeps chopping. His axe exposes grindstone, throwing sparks. atrina looks down from the stairway. The pounding on the trap door causes the grindstone to jump.

Katrina: Ichabod...
Ichabod: Keep climbing. I will follow. (under his breath) Hopefully.
He drags large bags of grain, lining them up at the edge of the milling platform. Above, Young Masbath throws open the door to the roof. Below, Ichabod uses the bailing hook to cut holes into the grain bags, so that milled grain spills out and falls to the floor, creating clouds of grain dust. Ichabod grabs one open bag, dumps it. He slices into a sack hanging from a pulley system, pushes it so it swings in circles, grain flooding out. More and more dust rises, filling the air. Masbath and Katrina come out. Rotors spin behind them. The grindstone blocking the trap door falls through as wood splinters and gives. A moment, then the Horseman climbs in.

Katrina: (looking in from above) Behind you!

Ichabod looks down, sees the Horseman, then looks to the staircase adjacent from the high platform. He runs, leaps across the space between the platform and stairs, grabs the outer rail of the staircase, hanging on, pulls himself up onto the stairs. Below, the Horseman moves through clouds of billowing dust, runs and leaps, incredibly high. The Horseman grasps a hanging chain, swinging, his momentum carrying him in a wide arc. Above, Ichabod runs upstairs, to the roof door. The Horseman's weight swings him toward the stairwell. He releases the chain...airborne momentarily...The Horseman lands high up on the stairwell. Katrina and Young Masbath help Ichabod onto the roof.

Katrina: Quickly, close it!
Ichabod: No! (takes the lantern from Katrina, points) Get to the crest of the roof and be ready to jump.
Young Masbath: Jump? From up here?!

The Horseman clomps upstairs, axe in hand. Ichabod shepherds Katrina and Young Masbath to the edge, where the rotors spin close.

Ichabod: Jump for the sails! Wait till I give the word!
Katrina: Ichabod! I can't!
Ichabod: Yes, you can, my love - hand in hand. (he moves back to the trap door. Katrina and Young Masbath look at the rotors, and down at the long distance between them and the ground.) Be ready. (he drops the lantern into the windmill and runs) Now!

The Horseman continues up. The lantern falls past. Young Masbath jumps. Ichabod grips Katrina, jumps. They hit one rotor, gripping the frame and cloth as the rotor begins its downward turn. The lantern hits the ground and shatters – flames explode. Throughout the windmill's interior, grain dust is consumed instantaneously – flames roar upward engulfing the Horseman. The rotor is halfway to its lowest point. Masbath, Katrina and Ichabod hang on as the entire structure trembles. Flames shoot out windows, doors and seams! On the rotor, Ichabod struggles to keep a grip on Katrina. Masbath drops. Ichabod and Katrina fall. They all hit the ground. Ichabod rolls over, gasping, holding his shoulders, getting to his feet. Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath run away as smoldering debris rains down. Ichabod ushers them along as they run across the field, heading uphill. Lightning flashes across the sky. Behind, the windmill begins to crumble, huge burning sections crashing to the ground. Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath slow, looking back at the incredible conflagration.

Young Masbath: Is he dead?
Ichabod: He was dead to start with. That's the problem.
Katrina: Look!

In the windmill rubble, the Horseman rises, shoving off burning debris. His flame-ravaged uniform smolders. Ichabod spins, searching for possibilities. He spots the coach and horses not too far away.

Ichabod: Come on!

They flee toward the coach. Behind, Daredevil rides to rejoin the Horseman. The coach hits the long straight road, rumbling at top speed away from the Van Tassel Estate, into the forest. Katrina and Masbath hold on as the coach shakes violently.

Katrina: Where are we going?
Ichabod: Anywhere!
Young Masbath: He's right behind!
Katrina: Make for the church!
Ichabod: We'll never reach it!
Young Masbath: (grabs Ichabod's satchel, offers it) Here, sir...you must have something in your bag of tricks.
Ichabod: Nothing that will help us, I am afraid. Take the reins.

Young Masbath takes them. Ichabod gives Van Ripper's rifle to Katrina, then crawls back across the coach roof. Ichabod gets to a baggage area at the rear, struggling to open a storage box. Behind, the Horseman draws his sword, closer. Ichabod opens the box and pulls out a jagged hand saw.

Katrina: Look out!

Ichabod: (looks. The Horseman rides up, swings his sword but Ichabod recoils - just missed. The Horseman lets the coach get ahead, shifting to the other side of the trail, coming along side again. He backpedals, looking to Masbath) Keep him off! Block him!

Masbath guides the horses over. The Horseman must fall behind to avoid the wheels. One wheel hits a large rock. Ichabod bounces, falling, drops the saw. He hangs off the side of the coach. The saw clatters away on the trail. Ichabod tries for better purchase. He grips the coach door. Katrina climbs to offer her hand.
Katrina: Take my hand!

Ichabod reaches to her, but the coach door falls open. His pistol falls from the holster and is lost on the trail. Ichabod clings helplessly to the door as branches slam him. The Horseman gets to his feet. Ahead, Daredevil stands waiting, giving a screech. They wind up on a trail near the Tree of the Dead. Katrina and Ichabod rejoin Mashath, climb off the coach to examine the ruined wheel, panicked.

Ichabod: This is not good.
Young Masbath: We're doomed.
Ichabod: We have to get out of the open somehow. Quick, follow me.

They turn to run, but suddenly falter, seeing... Riding over the crest of the hill, comes Lady Van Tassel, on her white horse, with Ichahod's lost pistol in her hand.

Lady Van Tassel: What? Still alive?!

Across the distance, the Horseman strides in this direction.

Ichabod: Run, Katrina!!
Lady Van Tassel: (points her gun at Katrina) Yes, do run. And jump. And skip. (she takes aim) And now let's see a somersault!
Ichabod: Run!

Ichahod makes a move toward Lady Van Tassel, but Lady Van Tassel aims and fires - shoots Ichahod in the chest! Ichabod goes down.

Katrina: Noooo!

Young Masbath cries out, falls to his knees beside Ichabod. Katrina moves toward Ichahod... Lady Van Tassel rides forward - grabs Katrina by the hair, pulling her, riding off toward the Horseman...Ichabod lays clutching the smoldering wound in his chest, gasping. Young Masbath holds him...

Young Masbath: Oh, God...no...no...

Lady Van Tassel drags Katrina by the hair as Katrina screams and struggles and kicks. The Horseman keeps coming. Lady Van Tassel stops her horse, halfway to the Horseman, drops Katrina and starts riding back, shouting...

Lady Van Tassel: There she is. Take her, she's yours!

Katrina gets up to run, stumbles, falls. The Horseman strides after. Up the field, Ichabod gets to his knees, feeling his chest with both hands, not quite understanding, struggling to shake off delirium.

Young Masbath: Sir, you're...you're not dead...
Ichabod: Not...yet...

Ichabod looks up, trying to comprehend. Lady Van Tassel had turned her horse, her back to us, keeping her distance from the Horseman. Beyond her, Katrina flees this direction with the Horseman at her heels. Ichabod's focused on something. The black saddlebag slung over Lady Van Tassel's horse. Ichabod rises out of pure determination, runs. Katrina runs...the Horseman is closing on her. Lady Van Tassel watches, grinning, but at the last second something catches her eye and she turns, just as Ichabod leaps, tackles Lady Van Tassel off of her horse, taking her down to the ground hard...her bag falling open...The Horseman's skull rolling out...Ichabod scrambles toward the skull - but falls, halted. Lady Van Tassel grips his leg, holding him. Young Masbath grabs a heavy, broken tree limb off the ground. The Horseman is mere yards behind Katrina. Ichabod struggles to get free from Lady Van Tassel, can't break her grip when, bang - Young Masbath smashes Lady Van Tassel over the head with the tree limb. She's out. The Horseman catches Katrina. Ichabod scrambles free, running, reaching for the skull …grasping it. The Horseman holds Katrina ready by her hair as she falls to her knees, screaming and struggling. The Horseman raises his sword. Ichabod rises, throws the skull with all his might.

Ichabod: Horseman!

The skull spins through the air. The Horseman suddenly drops Katrina, reaches up with one hand...catches the skull. Katrina runs. Ichabod runs to meet her, grabs her as she falls. Together, they back away from the Horseman. The Horseman holds the skull out...brings it to his shoulders, to its rightful place. Thunder pounds. A transformation begins - blood and flesh rise up from the Horseman's throat and grip the skull. Young Masbath watches in awe. The Horseman's reformation continues. Muscle forms. Liquids become solids. He is made whole once more, the same evil, human face we saw in Baltus's stories. The Horseman looks to Ichabod and Katrina, touches his restored face. Daredevil rides up, screeching. The Horseman replaces his sword, climbs into the saddle. He rides toward Katrina and Ichabod, but he does not want them. They are so exhausted they fall down. Young Masbath comes to stand with them. The Horseman leans to grab Lady Van Tassel's unconscious form, pulls her up across Daredevil's back. The Horseman rides away with her. Ichabod and Katrina watch him go. They look at each other, then kiss gratefully. Ichabod looks to Young Masbath...

Ichabod: How are you, Young Masbath?
Young Masbath: Weary, sir.

Ichabod holds out his arm. Masbath comes over. They embrace. Katrina touches the burned bullet hole in Ichabod's clothing.

Katrina: I thought I had lost you.

Ichabod reaches into his clothing, takes out a book he kept in an inner pocket close to his heart. The Book of Spells with a bullet lodged in it. Katrina wraps her arms around Ichabod.

***
Western Woods. Tree of the Dead. The Horseman enters the clearing, holding on to Lady Van Tassel. Ahead, the Tree of the dead awaits. Lady Van Tassel is awakening. The Horseman grips Lady Van Tassel's hair, pulling her face up closer to his, just as she opens her eyes. She screams as the Horseman brings his face to meet hers, about to engage in a kiss, his jagged teeth open wide. Ahead, the twisted tree's wound opens, deep and glowing, as Daredevil picks up speed. Daredevil jumps in the air just as a lightning bolt blasts down from the sky, striking the Horseman. For an instant, Horseman and horse are transformed, skeletons of light entering the tree! Silence and smoke. At the tree, Lady Van Tassel's hand sticks out from the tight-shut suture. The sewn wound on her palm seeps blood as her fingers curl.

***
New York Street. Ichabod’s home. Day. A coach pulls up to Ichabod's home. Ichabod is the driver. He gets off, goes and opens the coach door. He helps Katrina down. Next, Young Masbath sticks his head out. Katrina holds Young Masbath's hand. Ichabod comes to hold Katrina's hand. A stray cat watches them. Young Masbath looks entranced at the bustling city.

Young Masbath: Oh, my!
Katrina: (equally impressed) And cobbled streets!
Ichabod: (proudly) Yes...New York, New York! Just in time for the new century! It's the modern age, Katrina!
Katrina: It's always the modern age, Ichabod, but the ancient ones endure.

Large snowflakes begin to fall upon the scene. Ichabod puts an arm around Katrina and the other arm around Masbath. The cat is black with one white paw...the Cat from Ichabod's dreams. The cat turns to look at the trio. The cat’s eyes are human, intelligent, kindly. They are Ichabod's Mother's eyes. Ichabod, Katrina and Young Masbath enter Ichabod's house, as the snow continues to fall.