ation]

[Photograph: A Dethroned King of Beasts]

The "spear" method is that employed by natives, who, armed with spear
and shield, surround a lion and then kill it with their spears. They
invariably succeed, but not until a few of the spear-bearers are more or
less Fletcherized by the lion. This method does not appeal to those who
wish to get home to tell about it, and need not be considered at length
in any correspondence course.

[Drawing: _The Tree Method_]

The tree method is comparatively simple. You build a platform in a tree
and place a bait near it. Then you wait through the long, silent watches
of the night for Felis Leo to appear. The method has few dangers. The
chief one lies in falling asleep and tumbling out of the tree, but this
is easily obviated by making the platform large enough for two or three
men, two of whom may stretch out and sleep while the other one remains
awake and keeps guard.

When I went to Africa I resolved never to climb a tree. Later I resolved
to try the tree method in order to get experience in a form of lion
hunting that has many advocates among the valiant hunters who want lion
skins at no expense to their own.

Of course, there are some perils connected with this method of lion
slaying. Mosquitoes may bite you, causing a dreadful fever that may
later result in death in some lingering and costly form. Also the biting
ants may pursue you up to your aery perch and take small but effective
bites in many itchable but unscratchable points. These elements of
danger are about the only ones encountered in the tree method of lion
hunting, but then who could expect to kill lions without some degree of
personal discomfort?

My one and only tree experience was not particularly eventful. A large
and commodious platform was built in the forks of a great tree in a
district where the questing grunt of lions could be heard each night.
The platform was comfortable; it only needed hot and cold running water
to be a delightful place to spend a tropic night.

I shot a hartebeest and had it dragged beneath the tree. Then my two
native gunbearers and I made a satisfactory ascent to the platform. We
had a thermos bottle filled with hot tea, and some odds and ends in the
way of solid refreshments. We then stretched out in positions that
commanded a view of the hartebeest and waited patiently for an obliging
lion to come and be shot.

Night came on and soon the landscape became shadowy and indist