rendered. Primus accordingly called
upon Gladding, and the arrangement must have been satisfactory, for
the three were all at the place of rendezvous at the appointed hour.

CHAPTER XIII.

"All these tales told in that dreamy undertone with which men
talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now
and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe,
sunk deep in the mind of Ichabod."

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

It was on the village wharf that the coadjutors met. Basset, as he
contemplated the martial bearing of the General and the burly form
of Gladding, felt comforted. The clouds that all day long had lowered
above his mental horizon parted, and patches of blue sky began
to appear. It was a cause of special gratulation to him, which he
realized more sensibly in the darkness than by day, that assistance so
important as Gladding's had been secured, and that without additional
expense. He was confident now of an easy victory. The associates
jumped into the boat, the painter was cast off, the constable, as
principal, took the steersman's seat, and Tom and Primus disposed
themselves to row.

The night was neither clear nor dark, or rather was both by fits and
starts. Light fleecy clouds were constantly passing over the heavens,
now gathering densely together and completely hiding the stars, and
now breaking up and revealing between the rifts then shining points. A
low wind softly moaned through the leafless trees on the banks of the
Severn, sadly chiming in with the murmur of the tide, which rose quite
up to the Falls of the Yaupaae. In the indistinct light, just enough
to stimulate and keep in active play the imagination, softening away
all those harshnesses which the garish brilliancy of day discloses,
and inviting the mind to supply with its own creations what is vague
and deficient, the village presented an appearance more attractive,
if possible, than by day. Along the margin of the river, and up
the hill-sides, the lights scattered in every direction, and rising
irregularly one above another, contended successfully with the
struggling stars to light the way of the adventurers; while a low
sound, the faint indication of life, hardly distinguishable from other
noises, rose from the village, for it was yet early in the night,
and imparted a sense of security by the consciousness of human
propinquity. But gradually, under the skillful strokes of the oars,
the sounds be