y, three splendid roe deer jumped
to their feet and stood as though frozen, gazing at us; then, with a
snort, they dashed down the slope and up the other side. They had
not yet disappeared, when two other bucks crossed a ridge into the
bottom of the draw. It was a sore trial to let them go, but the old
hunter had his hand upon my arm and shook his head.

Passing the summit of the hill, we sat down for a look around.
Before us, nearly a mile away, three shallow, grass-filled valleys
dropped steeply from the rolling meadowland. Almost instantly
through my binoculars caught the moving forms of three sheep in the
bottom of the central draw. "_Pan-yang_," I said to the Mongol.
"Yes, yes, I see them," he answered. "One has very big horns." He
was quite right; for the largest ram carried a splendid head, and
the other was by no means small. The third was a tiny ewe. The
animals wandered about nibbling at the grass, but did not move out
of the valley bottom. After studying them awhile the hunter
remarked, "Soon they will go to sleep. We'll wait till then. They
would hear or smell us if we went over now."

I ate one of the three pears I had brought for tiffin and smoked a
cigarette. The hunter stretched himself out comfortably upon the
grass and pulled away at his pipe. It was very pleasant there, for
we were protected from the wind, and the sun was delightfully warm.
I watched the sheep through the glasses and wondered if I should
carry home the splendid ram that night. Finally the little ewe lay
down and the others followed her example.

We were just preparing to go when the hunter touched my arm.
"_Pan-yang_," he whispered. "There, coming over the hill. Don't move."
Sure enough, a sheep was trotting slowly down the hillside in our
direction. Why he did not see or smell us, I cannot imagine, for the
wind was in his direction. But he came on, passed within one hundred
feet, and stopped on the summit of the opposite swell. What a shot!
He was so close that I could have counted the rings on his
horns--and they were good horns, too, just the size we wanted for the
group. But the hunter would not let me shoot. His heart was set upon
the big ram peacefully sleeping a mile away.

"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" is a motto which I
have followed with good success in hunting, and I was loath to let
that _argali_ go even for the prospect of the big one across the
valley. But I had a profound respect for the opinion of