In Washington Irving's The Devil and Tom Walker, how does the devil take Tom on the horse?

Tom Walker, having sold his soul to the devil in exchange for wealth the likes of which he never otherwise could have known, is growing old. Still morally and ethnically corrupt in his business dealings, especially with those most in need of help, he recognizes that his days on this earth are running short. His knowledge of his eventual demise, however, does not prepare him for the three knocks on his office door and the surprise that awaits him when he opens that door. His visitor is the devil, come for his pay. Irving describes the suddenness of Tom's departure into Hell as follows:

"The black man whisked him like a child astride the horse and away he galloped in the midst of a thunderstorm . . ."

That, in short, is how the devil takes Tom on the horse. The fact of the horse, however, is highly symbolic of the story's emphasis on Tom's mistreatment of animals as well as of his fellow human beings. Throughout The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving's narrator describes the condition of Tom's horses in exceedingly bleak terms, evident in the following passages:

"A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron . . ."

"He even set up a carriage in the fullness of his vain glory, though he nearly starved the horses which drew it . . ."

That the devil comes for Tom in his waning days on a horse, then, is no accident, although the period in which Irving's story was written and takes place obviously left few other options with respect to basic forms of transportation. 

The horse theme continues, as the departed Tom's belongings are searched for signs of the late miser's wealth, but, instead of wealth, only "chips and shavings" are found. More significantly, in the place of his "half starved horses," those searching his premises find only two skeletons. Finally, in the years following Tom's sudden disappearance, a "figure on horseback in morning gown and white cap" is regularly observed on stormy nights haunting the old woods where Tom first encountered Old Scratch. Tom has been condemned, by virtue of his greed, to haunt these woods for eternity. It is presumed, however, that the horses abused by the doomed usurer enjoyed a better existence following Tom's transition from this world to the next.