NOMADS OF THE FOREST 163 



moving about in a luxurious growth of grass and tinted 

 leaves. My heart missed a beat, for I thought it was a 

 wapiti. 



Instantly I dropped behind a bush and, as the animal 

 moved into the open, I saw it was an enormous roebuck 

 bearing a splendid pair of antlers. I watched him for 

 a moment, then aimed low behind the foreleg arid fired. 

 The deer bounded into the air and rolled to the bottom 

 of the ravine, kicking feebly; my bullet had burst the 

 heart. It was one of the few times I have ever seen an 

 animal instantly killed with a heart shot for usually 

 they run a few yards, and then suddenly collapse. 



The buck was almost as large as the first one I had 

 killed with Tserin Dorchy but it had a twisted right 

 antler. Evidently it had been injured during the ani- 

 mal's youth and had continued to grow at right angles 

 to the head, instead of straight up in the normal way. 



When I reached camp I found Yvette busily picking 

 currants in the bushes beside the stream. Her face and 

 hands were covered with red stains and she looked like 

 a very naughty little boy who had run away from school 

 for a day in the woods. Although blueberries grew on 

 every hillside, we never found strawberries, such as the 

 Russians in Urga gather on the Bogdo-ol, and only one 

 patch of raspberries on a burned-off mountain slope. 

 But the currants were delicious when smothered in 

 sugar. 



Yvette and I rode out to the spot where I had killed 

 the roebuck to bring it in on Kublai Khan and before 

 we returned the Mongol hunters had reached camp; 



