A jack was make with equal skill and speed.  A stout staff about three feet long was placed upright in the bow of the boat, and held to its place by a horizontal bar, through a hole in which it turned easily:  a half wheel eight or ten inches in diameter, cut from a large chip, was placed at the top, around which was bent a new section of birch bark, thus forming a rude semicircular reflector.  Three candles placed within the circle completed the jack.  With moss and boughs seats were arranged,—­one in the bow for the marksman, and one in the stern for the oarsman.  A meal of frogs and squirrels was a good preparation, and, when darkness came, all were keenly alive to the opportunity it brought.  Though by no means an expert in the use of the gun,—­adding the superlative degree of enthusiasm to only the positive degree of skill,—­yet it seemed tacitly agreed that I should act as marksman and kill the deer, if such was to be our luck.

After it was thoroughly dark, we went down to make a short trial trip.  Everything working to satisfaction, about ten o’clock we pushed out in earnest.  For the twentieth time I felt in the pocket that contained the matches, ran over the part I was to perform, and pressed my gun firmly, to be sure there was no mistake.  My position was that of kneeling directly under the jack, which I was to light at the word.  The night was clear, moonless, and still.  Nearing the middle of the lake, a breeze from the west was barely perceptible, and noiselessly we glided before it.  The guide handled his oar with great dexterity; without lifting it from the water or breaking the surface, he imparted the steady, uniform motion desired.  How silent it was!  The ear seemed the only sense, and to hold dominion over lake and forest.  Occasionally a lily-pad would brush along the bottom, and stooping low I could hear a faint murmuring of the water under the bow:  else all was still.  Then almost as by magic, we were encompassed by a huge black ring.  The surface of the lake, when we had reached the center, was slightly luminous from the starlight, and the dark, even forest-line that surrounded us, doubled by reflection in the water, presented a broad, unbroken belt of utter blackness.  The effect was quite startling, like some huge conjurer’s trick.  It seemed as if we had crossed the boundary-line between the real and the imaginary, and this was indeed the land of shadows and of spectres.  What magic oar was that the guide wielded that it could transport me to such a realm!  Indeed, had I not committed some fatal mistake, and left that trusty servant behind, and had not some wizard of the night stepped into his place?  A slight splashing in-shore broke the spell and caused me to turn nervously to the oarsman:  “Musquash,” said he, and kept strait on.

Nearing the extreme end of the pond, the boat gently headed around, and silently we glided back into the clasp of that strange orbit.  Slight sounds were heard as before, but nothing that indicated the presence of the game we were waiting for; and we reached the point of departure as innocent of venison as we had set out.