Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . beside the road, and trotted on towardHei-ma-hou between waving fields ofwheat, buckwheat, millet, and oats—•oats as thick and meaty as any horsecould wish to eat. For sixty miles be-yond Kalgan the industrious Chinamanhas reclaimed the desert with his hoeand plow, and each year pushes forwardthe line of cultivation a score of milesinto the untouched plain. After tiffin Coltman and Lucandergalloped ahead while I trotted alongmore slowly in the rear. It was nearlyseven oclock and the trees about themission station had been visible
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 139 June to November 1919 . beside the road, and trotted on towardHei-ma-hou between waving fields ofwheat, buckwheat, millet, and oats—•oats as thick and meaty as any horsecould wish to eat. For sixty miles be-yond Kalgan the industrious Chinamanhas reclaimed the desert with his hoeand plow, and each year pushes forwardthe line of cultivation a score of milesinto the untouched plain. After tiffin Coltman and Lucandergalloped ahead while I trotted alongmore slowly in the rear. It was nearlyseven oclock and the trees about themission station had been visible for halfan hour. I was enjoying a gorgeous sun-set which splashed the western sky withgold and red, and lazily watching theblack silhouettes of a camel caravanswinging along the summit of a ridge amile away. On the road beside me atrain of laden mules and bullock-cartsrested for a moment with the drivershalf asleep. Over all the plain there laythe peace of a perfect autumn evening. Suddenly, from behind a little rise, Iheard the whir of a motor engine and. LAMAS IN FRONT OF THE TEMPLE NEAR PANG-KIANG CAMELS STILL PLOD THEIR SILENT WAY ACROSS THE AGE-OLD PLAINS the raucous voice of a klaxon I realized what it meant, I wasin the midst of a mass of plunging, snort-ing animals, shouting carters, and kickingmules. In a moment the caravan scat-tered wildly across the plains and theroad was clear save for the author ofthe turmoil, a black automobile. I wish I could make you who spendyour lives within a city know howstrange and out of place that motorseamed alone there upon the open plainon the borders of Mongolia. Imagine acamel or an elephant with all its Orientaltrappings suddenly appearing on FifthAvenue! But you would think at oncethat it had escaped from a circus or azoo and be mainly curious as to what thetraffic policeman would do when it didnot obey his signals. But all its strangeness and the factthat it was a glaring anachronism, didnot prevent me from aband
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