Lesson 9 The Most Dangerous Game
1) “General,” said Rainsford firmly, “I wish to leave this island at once.”
2) The General raised his eyebrows. He seemed hurt.
3) “I wish to go today,” said Rainsford. He saw the dead black eyes of the General on him, studying him. General Zaroff’s face suddenly brightened. He filled Rainsford’s glass.
4) “Tonight,” said the General, “We will hunt——You and I. ”
5) “No, General,” said Rainsford. “I will not hunt.”
6) The General shrugged his shoulders. “As you wish, my friend. The choice rests entirely with you. But may I venture to suggest that you’ll find my idea of sport more interesting than Ivan’s?”
7) He nodded toward the corner where the giant stood, his thick arms crossed on his hogshead of a chest.
8) “You don’t mean——” cried Rainsford.
9) “My dear fellow,” said the General. “Have I not told you that I always mean what I say about hunting?”
10) The General raised his glass, but Rainsford sat staring at him.
11) “You will find the game worth playing,” the General said enthusiastically. “Your brain against mine. Your woodcraft against mine. Your strength and stamina against mine, Outdoor chess! And the stake is not without value, eh? ”
12) “And if I win——” began Rainsford huskily.
13) “I’ll cheerfully acknowledge my defeat that if I do not find you by midnight of the third day,” said the General. “My boat will place you on the mainland near a town.” He sipped his wine and then in a businesslike air, he went on, “Ivan will supply you with hunting clothes, food and knife. I suggest you wear moccasins; they leave a poorer trail. I suggest too that you avoid the big swamp at the southeast corner of the island. We call it Death Swamp. There’s quicksand there. One foolish fellow tried it. The deplorable part of it was that Lazarus followed him. He was the finest hound in my pack. Well, I must beg you to excuse me now. I always takes a little nap after lunch. You’ll hardly have time for that, I’m afraid. You’ll want to start, no doubt. I shall not follow until dusk. Hunting at night is so much more exciting than by day, don’t you think? Au revoir, Mr. Rainsford ”
14) General Zaroff, with a deep courtly bow, strolled from the room.
15) Rainsford had fought his way through the bush for two hours. “I must keep my nerve. I must keep my nerve,” he said through tight teeth.
16) He had not been entirely clear-headed when the chateau gates snapped shut behind him. His whole idea at first was to put distance between himself and General Zaroff. He had plunged along, spurred on by a sharp feeling of panic. But now he had got a grip on himself, had stopped, and was taking stock of himself and the situation.
17) He saw that straight flight was futile; inevitably it would bring him face to face with the sea. He was in a picture with a frame of water, and his operation, clearly, must take place within that frame.
18) “I’ll give him a trail to follow,” muttered Rainsford, and he struck off the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. He executed a series of intricate loops; he doubled on his trail again and again, recalling all the lore of the fox hunt or the dodges of the fox. Night found him legweary, with hands and face lashed by the branches, on a thickly wooden bridge. He knew it would be insane to blunder on through the dark, even if he had the strength. “I have played the fox,” he thought, “now I must play the cat.” A big tree with a thick trunk and outspread branches was nearby, and taking care to leave not the slightest mark, he climbed up into the crotch, and stretching out on one of the broad limbs, after a fashion, rested. Rest brought him new confidence and almost a feeling of security. Even so zealous a hunter as General Zaroff could not trace him there, he told himself; only the devil himself could follow that complicated trail through the jungle after dark, but perhaps the General was a devil——
19) The night crawled slowly like a wounded snake, and sleep did not visit Rainsford although the silence of a dead world was on the jungle. Toward morning when a dingy gray was varnishing the sky, the cry of some startled bird focused Rainsford’s attention in that direction. Something was coming through the bush, slowly, carefully, by the same winding way Rainsford had come. He flattened himself down on the limb, and through a screen of the leaves, saw it was a man.
20) It was General Zaroff. He made his way along with his eys fixed in utmost concentration on the ground. He paused, almost beneath the tree, dropped his knees, and studied the ground. Rainsford’s impulse was to hurl himself down like a panther but he saw the General’s right hand held by something metallic——a small automatic pistol.
21) The hunter shook his head several times, as if puzzled. Then he straightened up and took out a cigarette. Rainsford held his breath. The General’s eyes were now travelling inch by inch up the tree. Rainsford froze there, every muscle tensed for a spring. But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay; a smile spread over his face. Very deliberately he blew a smoke ring into the air, and then turned and walked carelessly away.
22) The pent-up air burst from Rainsford’s lungs. His first thought made him feel sick and numb. The General could follow an extremely difficult trail through the woods at night; he must have uncanny powers; only by the merest chance had the Cossack failed to see his quarry.
23) Rainsford’s second thought was even more terrible. It sent a shudder of cold horror through his whole being. Why had the general smiled? Why had he turned back?
24) The truth was clear: the general was playing with him. He was saving him for another day’s sport! The Cossack was the cat; he was the mouth. It was then that Rainsford knew the full meaning of horror.
25) “I will not lose my nerve. I will not.”
26) He slid down from the tree and struck off again into the woods. He forced himself to think. 300 yards away he stopped where a huge dead tree leaned precariously on a smaller, living one. Throwing off his sack of food, he began to work. The job was soon finished, and he threw himself down behind a fallen log a hundred feet away. He did not have to wait long. The cat was coming again to play with the mouse.
27) Following the trail with the sureness of a bloodhound came the general. Nothing escaped the searching eyes, no crushed blade of the grass, no bent twig, no mark in the moss. So intent was the Cossack on his stalking that he was upon the thing Rainsford had made before he saw it. His foot touched the protruding bout that was a trigger. He sensed the danger and leaped back with the agility of an ape. But he was not quite quick enough; the dead tree, delicately adjusted to rest on the cut living one, crushed down and struck him on the shoulder; but for his alertness, he would have been smashed beneath it. He staggered, but he did not fall. He stood there, rubbing his shoulder, and Rainsford heard his mocking laugh ring through the jungle.
28) “Rainsford,” called the general, “if you are within sound of my voice, as I suppose you are, Let’s me congratulate you. Not many men know how to make a Malay man-catcher. You are proving interesting, Mr. Rainsford. I’m going back to have my wound dressed. But I shall be back. I shall be back.”
29) When the general had gone, Rainsford took up his flight again. It was flight now, a desperate, hopeless flight carried him on for several hours. Dusk came, then darkness, and still he pressed on. The ground grew softer; the vegetation denser; and insects bit him savagely. Then as he stepped forward, his foot sank into the ooze. He tried to wrench it back, but the muck sucked back viciously at his foot as if it were a giant leech. With a violent effort, he tore his foot free. He knew where he was now. Death Swamp.
30) The soft earth gave him an idea, and he began to dig. He had dug himself in when he was in France when a second’s delay meant death. That had been a placid pastime compared to his digging now. The pit grew deeper. When it was above his shoulders, he climbed out and from hard saplings cut stakes and sharpened them to a fine point. These he planted in the bottom of the pit with the points sticking up. Then he covered the mouth of the pit with weeds and branches.
31) He crouched behind a lightning-charred tree and waited. Soon he heard the padding sound of feet on the soft earth, and the night breeze brought him the perfume of the general’s cigarette. It seemed that the general was coming with unusual swiftness. Rainsford lived a year in a minute. Then he left an impulse to cry out with joy, for he heard the sharp scream of pain as the cover of the pit gave away and the pointed stakes found their mark. He leapt up from his concealment, but he cowered back. Three feet from the pit a man was standing, with an electric torch in his hand.
32) “You’ve done well. Rainsford,” the voice of the general called. “Your Burmese tiger pit has claimed one of my best dogs. Again you score. I’m going home for a rest now. Thank you for a most amusing evening.”
33) At daybreak Rainsford was awakened by a sound that made him know that he had new things to learn about fear. It was a distant sound, but he knew it. It was the baying of a pack of hounds.
34) Rainsford knew he could do one of two things. He could stay where he was and wait. That was suicide. He could flee. That was postponing the inevitable. For a moment he stood there, thinking. An idea that held a wild chance came to him and, tightening his belt, he headed away from the swamp.
35) The baying of the hounds drew nearer and nearer. On a bridge Rainsford climbed a tree. About a quarter of a mile away, he could see the bush moving. Straining his eyes, he saw the lean figure of the general; just ahead of him he made out another figure; it was the giant Ivan; Rainsford knew that he must be holding the pack in the leash.
36) They would be on him any minute now. His mind worked frantically. He thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda. He slid down the tree. He caught hold of a spring young sapling and to it he fastened his hunting knife, with the blade pointed down the trail; with a bit of wild grapevine he tied back the sapling. Then he ran for his life. The hounds raised their voices as the hit the fresh scent.
37) The baying of the hounds stopped abruptly, and Rainsford’s heart stopped too. He shinned excitedly up a tree and looked back. His pursuers had stopped. But the hope that was in his brain dead, for he saw in the shallow valley that General Zaroff was still on his feet. But Ivan was not. The knife, driven by the recoil of the spring tree has not wholly failed.
38) Rainsford had hardly tumbled to the ground when the pack took up the cry again. “Nerve, nerve, nerve!” he panted, as he dashed along. A blue gap showed between the trees dead ahead. Ever nearer drew the hounds. Rainsford forced himself on towards the gap. He reached it. It was the shore of the sea. Across a cove he could see the gloomy gray stone of the chateau. Twenty feet below him the sea rumbled and hissed. Rainsford hesitated. He heard the hounds. Then he leaped far out into the sea.
39) When the general and his pack reached the place by the sea, the Cossack stopped for some minutes he stood regarding the blue green expanse of water. He shrugged his shoulders. Then he sat down, took a drink of brandy form a silver flask, lit a perfumed cigarette, and hummed a bit from “Madame Butterfly”. General Zaroff had an exceedingly good dinner that evening. Two slight annoyances kept him from his perfect enjoyment. One was the thought that it would be difficult to replace Ivan; the other was that his quarry had escaped. In his library, hr read for a while. There was a little moonlight, so , before turning on his light, he went to the window and looked down at the courtyard.He could see the great hounds, and he called: “ Better luck another time, “ to them. Then he switched on the light.
40) A man, who had been hiding in the curtains of the bed, was standing there.
41) “Rainsford!” screamed the general. “How in God’s name did you get there?”
42) “Swam,” said Rainsford. “I found it quicker than walking through the jungle.”
43) The general sucked in his breath and smiled. “I congratulate you.” he said. “You have won the game.”
44) Rainsford did not smile. “I am still a beast at bay,” he said, in a low hoarse voice. “Get ready, General Zaroff.”
45) The general made one of the deepest bows. “I see,” he said. “Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford…”
46) He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided. |