Лучшие романы Томаса Майна Рида / The Best of Thomas Mayne Reid

The startled stag, his own horse, the wolf, and the midnight moon, are the sole witnesses of his silent abstraction.

His shoulders shrouded under a serape[5 - serape – a bright, coloured Mexican shawl or plaid], one edge of which, flirted up by the wind, displays a portion of his figure: his limbs encased in “water-guards” of jaguar-skin: thus sufficiently sheltered against the dews of the night, or the showers of a tropical sky, he rides on – silent as the stars shining above, unconcerned as the cicada[6 - cicada – a flying insect which produces a shrill sound in hot, dry weather] that chirrups in the grass beneath, or the prairie breeze playing with the drapery of his dress.

Something at length appears to rouse from his reverie, and stimulate him to greater speed – his steed, at the same time. The latter, tossing up its head, gives utterance to a joyous neigh; and, with outstretched neck, and spread nostrils, advances in a gait gradually increasing to a canter.

The horse halts not again, till the crystal current is surging against his flanks, and the legs of his rider are submerged knee-deep under the surface.

The animal eagerly assuages its thirst; crosses to the opposite side; and, with vigorous stride, ascends the sloping bank.

Upon the crest occurs aВ pause: as if the rider tarried till his steed should shake the water from its flanks. There is aВ rattling of saddle-flaps, and stirrup-leathers, resembling thunder, amidst aВ cloud of vapour, white as the spray of aВ cataract.

Out of this self-constituted nimbus[7 - nimbus – a light or golden circle round the saint’s head; a rain cloud], the Headless Horseman emerges; and moves onward, as before.

Apparently pricked by the spur, and guided by the rein, of his rider, the horse no longer strays from the track; but steps briskly forward, as if upon aВ path already trodden.

A treeless savannah stretches before – selvedged by the sky. Outlined against the azure[8 - azure – (poet.