e's white rump-patch. The bullet struck a few
inches behind the ram, and the valley was empty.

Looking down where they had been so quietly feeding only a few
moments before, I called myself all known varieties of a fool. I
felt very bad indeed that I had bungled hopelessly my first chance
at an _argali_. But the sympathetic old hunter patted me on the
shoulder and said in Chinese, "Never mind. They were small ones
anyway--not worth having." They were very much worth having to me,
however, and all the light seemed to have gone out of the world. We
smoked a cigarette, but there was no consolation in that, and I
followed the hunter around the peak with a heart as heavy as lead.

Half an hour later we sat down for a look around. I studied every
ridge and gully with my glasses without seeing a sign of life. The
four sheep had disappeared as completely as though one of the
yawning ravines had swallowed them up; the great valley bathed in
golden sunlight was deserted and as silent as the tomb.

I was just tearing the wrapper from a piece of chocolate when the
hunter touched me on the arm and said quietly, "_Pan-yang li la_" (A
sheep has come). He pointed far down a ridge running out at a right
angle to the one on which we were sitting, but I could see nothing.
Then I scanned every square inch of rock, but still saw no sign of
life.

The hunter laughingly whispered, "I can see better than you can even
with your foreign eyes. He is standing in that trail--he may come
right up to us."

I tried again, following the thin, white line as it wound from us
along the side of the knifelike ridge. Just where it vanished into
space I saw the sheep, a splendid ram, standing like a statue of
gray-brown granite and gazing squarely at us. He was fully half a
mile away, but the hunter had seen him the instant he appeared.
Without my glasses the animal was merely a blur to me, but the
marvelous eyes of the Mongol could detect its every movement.

"It is the same one we saw this morning," he said. "I was sure we
would find him over here. He has very big horns--much better than
those others."

That was quite true; but the others had given me a shot and this
ram, splendid as he was, seemed as unobtainable as the stars. For an
hour we watched him. Sometimes he would turn about to look across
the ravines on either side and once he came a dozen feet toward us
along the path. The hunter smoked quietly, now and then looking
through my glasses