will see the shadow of a gentleman."




CHAPTER IX.

HUNTING BY TORCH LIGHT--AN INCOMPETENT JUDGE--A NEW
SOUND IN THE FOREST--OLD SANGAMO'S DONKEY.


Spalding and Martin went out upon the lake after dark, with one of the
boats, to hunt by torch light. This is done by placing a lighted
torch, or a lamp upon a standard, placed upright in the bow of the
boat, and so high that a man seated or lying upon the bottom of the
craft, will have his head below it. He must himself be in someway
shaded from the light, which must be cast forward so that both the
hunter and the boatman will be in the shadow. A very common method is
to make a box, a foot or less square, open, or with a pane of glass on
one side; a stick three or four feet long is run through an auger hole
in the top and bottom, and wedged fast, which forms a standard; the
other end of the stick is run through a hole on the little deck on the
forward part of the boat, and placed in a socket formed for the
purpose in the bottom, and is wedged at the deck, so as to make it
steady. The open or glass front of the box is turned forward, and a
common japan lamp placed in a socket prepared for it in the box. This
of course throws the light forward, while the occupants of the boat
are in the shadow. The hunter sits, or more commonly lies at length on
a bed of boughs in the bottom of the boat, with his rifle so far in
front that the light will fall upon the forward sight. An experienced