MONGOLIAN ARGALI 213 



could not follow the trail along the cliflfs. By six 

 o'clock it was black night in the gorge. 



The donkeys were our only salvation, for by instinct 

 — it couldn't have been sight — they followed the trail 

 along the base of the cliffs. By keeping my hands 

 upon the back of the rearmost animal, and the two 

 Mongols close to me, we got out of the canon and into 

 the wider valley. When we reached the village I was 

 hungry enough to eat chips, for I had had only three 

 pears since six o'clock in the morning, and it was then 

 nine at night. 



Harry, limping into camp just after dark, had met 

 my cousin, Commander Thomas Hutchins, Naval At- 

 tache of the American Legation, and Major Austin 

 Barker of the British Army, whom we had been ex- 

 pecting. They had reached the village about ten 

 o'clock in the morning and spent the afternoon shoot- 

 ing hares near a beautiful temple which Harry had 

 discovered among the hills three miles from camp. The 

 boys had waited dinner for me, and we ate it amid a 

 gale of laughter — ^we were always laughing during the 

 five days that Tom and Barker were with us. 



Harry was out of the hunting the next day because 

 his leg needed a complete rest. I took Tom out with 

 me, while Barker was piloted by an old Mongol who 

 gave promise of being a good hunter. Tom and I 

 climbed the white trail to the summit of the ridge, while 

 Barker turned off to the left to gain the peaks on the 

 other side of the gorge. Na-mon-gin was keen for the 

 big ram which I had missed the day before. He had 



