Michael Gambon credited as playing...
Baltus Van Tassel
- Ichabod Crane: It was a headless horseman!
- Baltus Van Tassel: You must not excite yourself.
- Ichabod Crane: But it was a headless horseman!
- Baltus Van Tassel: Of course it was. That's why you're here.
- Ichabod Crane: No, you must believe me. It was a horseman, a dead one. Headless!
- Baltus Van Tassel: I know, I know.
- Ichabod Crane: You don't know because you were not there! It's all true.
- Baltus Van Tassel: Of course it is. I told you. Everyone told you.
- Ichabod Crane: I... saw him.
- [faints]
- Ichabod Crane: We have murders in New York without benefit of ghouls and goblins.
- Baltus Van Tassel: You are a long way from New York, constable.
- Baltus Van Tassel: The horseman was a Hessian mercenary sent to the 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. When battle was joined, there you'd find him. He rode a giant black steed named Daredevil. He was infamous for riding his horse hard into battle, chopping off heads at full gallop. He had filed his teeth down to sharp points to add the the ferocity of his appearance.
- Dr. Thomas Lancaster: Enough have died already. It's time to confess our sins.
- Baltus Van Tassel: What is it that you know?
- Dr. Thomas Lancaster: Your four friends played you false. We were devilishly possessed by one who -
- [the Reverend bashes him on the head]
- Ichabod Crane: [Studies the horse tracks surrounding Jonathan Masbath's dead body, and takes giant footsteps] The stride is gigantic! The attacker rode Masbath down, turned his horse, and came back. Came back to claim the head.
- [Takes a small bottle out of his bag and starts sprinkling powder near the severed neck. The powder sizzles]
- Ichabod Crane: Yes. There's a chemical reaction. It shows there was a powerful, singular thrust to the neck.
- [Puts on strange goggles]
- Ichabod Crane: Now.
- [Using tongs, he lifts the skin of the neck and a beetle runs out. He shudders]
- Ichabod Crane: Interesting.
- Baltus Van Tassel: What is it?
- Ichabod Crane: The wound was cauterized in the very instant, as though the blade itself were red-hot. And yet, no blistering, no scorched flesh.
- Samuel Philipse: The Devil's fire.