I congratulate you," he said. "You have won the game

You've done well, Rainsford," the voice of the general called. "Your Burmese tiger pit has claimed one of my best dogs

With flying fingers he wove a rough carpet of weeds and branches and with it he covered the mouth of the pit. Then, wet with sweat and aching with tiredness, he crouched behind the stump of a lightning-charred tree.

I wish to leave this island at once

hen we'll hunt, eh? I've one rather promising prospect

One almost did win. I eventually had to use the dogs

"Oh," said the general, "I give him his option, of course. He need not play that game if he doesn't wish to. If he does not wish to hunt, I turn him over to Ivan. Ivan once had the honor of serving as official knouter to the Great White Czar, and he has his own ideas of sport. Invariably, Mr. Rainsford, invariably they choose the hunt."

They can reason, after a fashion. So they are dangerous."

"Hunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder."The general laughed with entire good nature. He regarded Rainsford quizzically. "I refuse to believe that so modern and civilized a young man as you seem to be harbors romantic ideas about the value of human life. Surely your experiences in the war—""Did not make me condone cold-blooded murder," finished Rainsford stiffly.

"I had to invent a new animal to hunt,"

Hunting tigers ceased to interest me some years ago. I exhausted their possibilities,

that the Cape buffalo is the most dangerous of all big game.

"It is a very great pleasure and honor to welcome Mr. Sanger Rainsford, the celebrated hunter, to my home."

He did not recognize the animal that made the sound

Again he heard the sound, and again. Somewhere, off in the blackness, someone had fired a gun three times.

What I felt was a—a mental chill; a sort of sudden dread."

The place has a reputation—a bad one.""Cannibals?" suggested Rainsford.

Rio