Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-12-27

fSOD,' u0 sAlu, OueHIuk Inc MS gun Ou
exclaimed to him that my shoulde
joint was valuable to me, and that
had no wish to have it dislocated. III
took horrible revenge upon me for N!
refusal by digging'a gristly riddle on
"Why is the lighthouse keeper lik
Lord Cardigan ?" he asked. "Becaus
? he Is one of the light brigade. of course,
and he gave q guffaw which raise,
l quite a cloud of birds, while I hurries
away with my camera before he coult
! fabricate another.
On coming down to the beach on tn
3 southern side Of the island beautifu
spectacle met my eyes. Nine fine yacht
of the Forth Club were rounding tn
point of the island, each under q cloud
of canvas and lying well over, for th,
breeze was beginning to freshen. They
. looked like some great flock of sea bird
as they rose and fell on the crests of ths
a, waves. The appearance Of these tempt
ed me to bring out my own patent stanG
and fix to nv camera the rapid lens anC
[ shutter. The light was exceedingly
brilliant. II reduced the aperture K
| about 13 f. The distance of the nearest
yacht was such that the lens being 70.
cussed for 1.-THE distance" did not re-.
quire to be further adjusted. I took
care that the iron spike was driven deer
in the sand, 80 as to ensure steadiness.
After once fixing the camera did moi
use the focusing glass, but trusted to
my eye to judge when the yacht would
cross the axis Of the lens. My shutter
gives what an unscientific friend of
mine calls "long instaneous ex-
posure;" that is to say, from an eighth
to tenth OF q second, which consider
short enough for. almost any purpose.
Let me take this opportunity of lay
ing great stress upon the advantage OF
having the aperture in the shutter sew
eral times the diameter of the lens In
the direction in which the shutter moves.
If this be not attended to the effect is
practically, for given length of expo.
sure, to reduce the amout of light which
reaches the plates, without the advan-
tages which would result by bringing
about the same reduction Of light BY
the use of q smalleYldiaphragm. In this
case every plate out of the halfdo4en
we exposed received proper actinio
impression.
BY this time 1t was nearly two O'Clock
and the picture Of the lunch basket
which we had left in the sheets of the
boat began to rise lovingly before my
mind. There was no difficulty In re-
Joining my companions. as their shots
and shouts were audible all over the is
land. toiled up the hill with my ca
mera and found them in little valley
beyond. They seemed surfeited with
slaughter, and hailed the idea of lunch
with enthusiasm.
"Not bad mornings work." said
"Chawles," triumphantly. Forty
three cormorants, nine rock pigeons,
two mallets. curlew, and bo'sun gull
pretty good for two guns"
"Sinbad was to bring up the basket
at half past one, wasn't he ?" asked
Yes; confound him! growled the
Doctor, ''its close on two now. You
fellows wait here and I'll go and hurry
aim up."
well, look sharp !" said we, so drop
ping his gun and q bad joke, the Doctor
passed over the brow of the hill and dis
appeared. He was away about ten min.
utes when he returned without the bas-
ket, but in state of upwOnted excite
ment.
'Come after:::me, Bob" he said, his
little black eyes dancing with mischief.
t"Bring your camera and come quick. -
With these words he led the way down
a hill and through some fnrze bushes.
Nov, quietly!" he whispered, as we
crawled up to large boulder. "Look
over that and don't speak,"
I rails ed my head slowly over the rock,
but it was all could do to fulfill the
latter portion of his precept. There,
not fifteen yards of, sat Sinbad with
our luncheon basket open before him.
At that particular moment he had Just
emptied third of our whisky bottle
down his throat. and was bending down
at the little spring while he filled it up
again with water.
"Look sharp!" whispered the Doctor.
"Take him before he sees your" We
raised tile camera.
necessary preparations and the roue
was taken in the act.
"That's pretty conclusive bit of evi-
dence," said the Doctor, as we quietly
went back as we had come. "We'll
keep it up as little surprise for him.
The son Of a seaoock ! to 60 and water
our grOg! Now we are far enough off
and out of sight. H0llo HOllo! Sim
bad ~
"I'm comm" said q voice, and the
mariner appeared from behind the rock
staggering along under the weight of
the basket.
"Come on man" cried the Doctor.
"You are as slow as promotion in the
navy"
Ppm gey sorry to ha' kept ye waitin, ,
but my banee are getting unco' Ould )"
explained Sinbad. "Ablins' I'm as
weel as only ither mon o'my age"
you've not been drinking anything
out of the basket, have you ?" said
sternly. The roue drew himself up.
There was all the conscious pride Of
innocence in every feature of his face,
albeit You could smell his breath at the
distance Of ten yards. He put his
gnarled old hand upon his breast:
"Maybe ye dinna' ken," he said,
a THAT I'm an elder o. the free kirk o.
Scotland" There was q wealth of hu-
NOR In the way In which the old sinner
rolled out this cl1nching piece of evil
dence.
;. "By Jove!" said the Doctor, IT feel
that we have acted brutally towards
; him. There are depths in Sinbad which
we have not fathomed as yet. 1 declare
won't be sure he did do it till that
photograph is developed"
We felt that the accusation should moi
be pressed as yet, so we endeavOred to
repair the veterans injured feelings by
giving him help with the basket
which we conveyed to the spot where
"Chawles" was waiting. Here VIC
seated ourselves, and, looking down at
the golden sand and the quiet blue ex-
panse stretching away to the horizon
/ we agreed that no king on earth had 8
dining hall like ours. It was a jovial
meal, and when we wound up on 6
glass Of grog, and the Doctor obliged the
, company with 1.-THE Midshipmite' in 8
charnel-house voice, even Sinbad's grin
} old face relaxed, and he was understood
to express his forgiveness of all injuries
received at the hands of the singer,
!, After luncheon the sportsmen wen
back to their birds, and I wandered of
J. over the island, getting two more very
, fine side views of the great caves, rib
bed in with their basaItic columns. ]
: then walked over to the lighthouse anc
made arrangements with the keeper
for putting US up that night, as we die
} not intend to take the boat back until
, the afternoon of the next day. Having
l made this all right I worked around
again towards the sportsmen. It wa.
| Nt this tiYna fhat fho ;Aoo -L1%o