The chance came in a curiously unexpected way.

Mr.Akeley, a man famed in African hunting exploits, was to deliver a talk before a little club to which I belonged.

I went, and as a result of my thrilled interest in every word he said, I met him and talked with him and finally was asked to join a new African expedition that he had in prospect.

With the party were to be Mrs.Akeley, with a record of fourteen months in the big game country, and Mr.Stephenson, a hunter with many years of experience in the wild places of the United States, Canada and Mexico.

My hunting experience had been chiefly gained in my library, but for some strange reason, it did not seem incongruous that I should begin my real hunting in a lion and elephant country.
[Drawing: _Getting Ready for Lion Shooting_] I had all the prowess of a Tartarin, and during the five months that elapsed before I actually set forth, I went about my daily work with a mind half dazed with the delicious consciousness that I was soon to become a lion hunter.