16 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



Whether they think they are being cut off from some 

 more desirable means of escape I cannot say, but the 

 fact remains that with the open plain on every side they 

 always try to "cross your bows." 



I shall never forget the sight of those magnificent ani- 

 mals streaming across the desert! There were at least 

 a thousand of them, and their yellow bodies seemed 

 fairly to skim the earth. I was shouting in excitement, 

 but Coltman said: 



"They're not running yet. Wait till we begin to 

 shoot." 



I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the speed- 

 ometer trembling at thirty-five miles, for we were mak- 

 ing a poor showing with the antelope. But then the 

 fatal attraction began to assert itself and the long col- 

 umn bent gradually in our direction. Coltman widened 

 the arc of the circle and held the throttle up as far as it 

 would go. Our speed increased to forty miles and the 

 car began to gain because the antelope were running 

 almost across our course. 



They were about two hundred yards away when Colt- 

 man shut off the gas and jammed both brakes, but be- 

 fore the car had stopped they had gained another 

 hundred. I leaped over a pile of bedding and came into 

 action with the .250 Savage high-power as soon as my 

 feet were on the ground. Coltman's .30 Mauser was 

 already spitting fire from the front seat across the wind- 

 shield, and at his second shot an antelope dropped like 

 lead. My first two bullets struck the dirt far behind the 

 rearmost animal, but the third caught a full-grown fe- 



