sened and was flying back
like a veil behind her head. Tense with excitement, eyes shining,
she was heedless of everything save those skimming yellow forms
before us. It was useless to look for holes; ere I had seen one we
were over or around it. With head low down and muzzle out, my pony
needed not the slightest touch to guide him. He knew where we were
going and the part he had to play.

More than a thousand antelope were running diagonally across our
course. It was a sight to stir the gods; a thing to give one's life
to see. But when we were almost near enough to shoot, the herd
suddenly swerved heading directly away from us. In an instant we
were enveloped in a whirling cloud of dust through which the flying
animals were dimly visible like phantom figures.

Khan was choked, and his hot breath rasped sharply through his
nostrils, but he plunged on and on into that yellow cloud. Standing
in my stirrups, I fired six times at the wraithlike forms ahead as
fast as I could work the lever of my rifle. Of course, it was
useless, but just the same I had to shoot.

In about a mile the great herd slowed down and stopped. We could see
hundreds of animals on every side, in groups of fifty or one
hundred. Probably two thousand antelope were in sight at once and
many more were beyond the sky rim to the west. We gave the ponies
ten minutes' rest, and had another run as unsuccessful as the first.
Then a third and fourth. The antelope, for some strange reason,
would not cross our path, but always turned straight away before we
were near enough to shoot.

After an hour we returned to the carts--for Yvette was exhausted
from excitement--and the lama took her place. We left the great herd
and turned southward, parallel to the road. A mile away we found
more antelope; at least a thousand were scattered about feeding
quietly like those we had driven north. It seemed as though all the
gazelles in Mongolia had concentrated on those few miles of plain.

The ponies were so exhausted that we decided to try a drive and
leave the main herd in peace. When we were concealed from view in
the bottom of a land swell I slipped off and hobbled Kublai Khan.
The poor fellow was so tired he could only stand with drooping head,
even though there was rich grass beneath his feet. I sent the lama
in a long circle to get behind the herd, while I crawled a few
hundred yards away and snuggled out of sight into an old wolf den.

I watched the antelope for