The Most Dangerous Game

Sanger Rainsford, a big-game hunter from New York City, and his friend Whitney are traveling by yacht to the Amazon rainforest for a jaguar hunt. After a discussion about the nearby Ship-Trap Island, which has an ominous reputation among sailors, Whitney goes to bed while Rainsford stays on deck to smoke his pipe. Hearing gunshots in the distance, he rushes to the rail for a better look and accidentally falls overboard. Rainsford swims to Ship-Trap Island and finds an opulent château inhabited by two Cossacks: the owner, General Zaroff, and his gigantic deaf-mute servant, Ivan.^[6]

Zaroff, another big-game hunter, knows of Rainsford from his published account of hunting snow leopards in Tibet. Over dinner, he explains that although he has been hunting animals since he was a boy, killing big game has become boring for him. After escaping the Russian Revolution, he purchased Ship-Trap Island, built a home for himself, and rigged the island with lights to lure passing ships into the jagged rocks surrounding it. He takes the survivors captive and hunts them for sport, giving them food, clothing, a knife, and a three-hour head start, and using only a small-caliber pistol for himself. Any captives who can elude Zaroff, Ivan, and a pack of hunting dogs for three days are set free, though Zaroff has never lost a hunt. Captives are offered a choice between being hunted or being turned over to Ivan, who once served as official knouter for the Great White Czar. Rainsford denounces the hunt as barbarism, but Zaroff replies by claiming that "life is for the strong." Zaroff is enthused to have another world-class hunter as a companion, suggesting that he and Rainsford go hunting, but Rainsford rebuffs him. When Rainsford refuses to see his collection of heads, citing ill feeling, Zaroff goes to hunt alone, bidding Rainsford goodnight and saying they will hunt tomorrow. The next day, Rainsford staunchly refuses to hunt and demands to leave the island, but Zaroff suggests he will be given to Ivan if he insists on refusing. Fearing this, Rainsford reluctantly accepts the challenge and receives his equipment from Ivan.

During his head start, Rainsford lays an intricate trail in the forest and then climbs a tree. Zaroff finds him easily but decides to toy with him, standing under the tree and smoking a cigarette before abruptly departing. Afterward, Rainsford builds a deadfall trap consisting of a dead tree balanced against a living one. The trap injures Zaroff's shoulder, forcing him to return home for treatment, but he expresses his respect for Rainsford's ingenuity as he leaves. Rainsford next digs a trapping pit and plants sharpened stakes at its bottom; one of Zaroff's dogs falls in and is killed. The next morning, he sacrifices his knife to build a trap that kills Ivan when he stumbles into it, but then dives off a cliff and into the sea to escape Zaroff and his approaching dogs. Disappointed at Rainsford's apparent suicide, Zaroff returns home and settles in for the night. His relaxation is disturbed only by two thoughts: the difficulty of replacing Ivan and the fact that Rainsford has escaped him.

Zaroff retires to his bedroom and turns on the lights, only to find Rainsford waiting for him, having swum around the island to evade the dogs and sneak into the château. Zaroff congratulates Rainsford for defeating him, but Rainsford prepares to fight him, saying that the hunt is not yet over. A delighted Zaroff responds that the loser will be fed to his dogs, while the winner will sleep in his bed. Some time later, Rainsford appreciates the comfort of the bed.

The story has been adapted numerous times, most notably as the 1932 RKO Pictures film The Most Dangerous Game, starring Joel McCrea, Leslie Banks, and Fay Wray,^[7] and for a 1943 episode of the CBS Radio series Suspense, starring Orson Welles.^[8]