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                                                                        Synopsis of the Previous Parts 

Sanger Rainsford was a famous big game hunter from New York. Over the years, he had been hunting in many parts of the world and was rewarded with many trophies. North American moose and snow leopards in Tibet were among his collections. 

One dark night, while on board a ship cruising in the Caribbean on their way to Brazil to hunt the region’s big cat, jaguar, Rainsford and his friend, Whitney, talked about their plan. Rainsford was excited to see that he would make the trip the best sport in the world. When Whitney expressed his doubt whether the jaguars being hunted would feel any pain and fear, Rainsford dismissed his idea as nonsense, telling his friend that the world was made up of two classes—the hunters and the hunted, and he was glad that he was the hunter. The ship was speeding quickly. Surrounded by pitch-darkness, little could they identify what was lying ahead except that they had a faint idea somewhere off there, to the ship’s right, there was a large island. “What island is it? I can’t tell in the dark.” Rainsford asked Whitney. Whitney replied him that it was a place notoriously named Ship-Trap Island by the old sailors. They said that even cannibals wouldn’t live in such a place, and he also told Rainsford that he noticed the crew having a curious restlessness that night. After Whitney went to bed, Rainsford remained on the deck. He heard gunshots coming from the direction of the Ship-Trap Island. He climbed the yacht’s rail to get a better view, but fell overboard. After he realized he could not swim back to the boat, he swam to the nearby island. 

While swimming desperately for shore, he heard the anguished cries of an animal being hunted; it was an animal he did not recognize. Rainsford made it to land and after sleeping on the beach, he began to look for people on the island. He found evidence of the hunt he overheard and wondered, upon finding a small empty cartridge, why anyone would use a small gun to hunt what was, according to the evidence, obviously a large animal. Rainsford followed the footsteps he found on the island until he came to a solitary house. 

The house was a palatial chateau inhabited by two Cossacks: the owner, General Zaroff, and his gigantic deaf servant, Ivan. The general, another big-game hunter, knew of Rainsford from his book about hunting snow leopards in Tibet. He welcomed Rainsford, congratulating him for being a celebrated hunter. He put Rainsford up as a guest, providing clothes and a bedroom for him, telling him that his place was the most restful spot. He invited Rainsford to the evening dinner at his dining room. It was a hall in the rich style of feudal times. On the wall hung heads of many animals Rainsford had never seen. The general treated him cocktails and champagne, telling him he did his best to preserve comforts of civilization here though the island he inhabited was way out on the sea. 

At the dinner, Zaroff told his own story. He was born into a rich Russian family. His father who was a nobleman was a zealous sportsman. He began to shoot sparrows when he was given a gun at the age of five. Then at ten, he killed his first bear in the Caucasus. Years later, as a nobleman’s son, he joined the army and for a time had commanded a division of Cossack cavalry. After the Russian revolution in 1917 the czarist regime had been overthrown. He fled the country and travelled from country to country, but he never stopped hunting because his real interest had always been the hunt. To him the world was nothing but a hunting ground. Life was for the strong, to be lived by the strong. The weak of the world were here to give the strong pleasure. 

It was impossible to tell how many animals he had killed. In fact he had hunted so many kinds of game animals over the years that he began to feel bored because hunting animals had become too easy for him. One day an idea suddenly came to him. He decided to hunt the most dangerous game in the world: man. As men could reason, the hunting of them was sure to increase his excitement and pleasure. 

He decided to live on an island, where he could capture shipwrecked sailors. He made lights to indicate a false channel where there were nothing but giant rocks with sharp edges to crush a ship. The sailors were then captured and stocked at his island, ready to be used as game in his sport of hunting. He sent his captives into the jungle supplied with food, a knife, and hunting clothes to be his quarry. After a three-hour head start he hunted and killed them. If the captives eluded him, Ivan and a pack of hunting dogs for three days, General Zaroff would let them go. However, no one had eluded him that long. Now Rainsford came to his island. He was excited to know what Rainsford was known for and now was inviting him to join him in his hunting, but Rainsford was appalled at his invitation and wanted to leave the place at once. (902words)