Smitha Nayak wrote:Sanger Rainsford and his friend Whitney are traveling speedily to Rio de Janeiro to hunt the big cat of that region, the jaguar. After a discussion about how they are the hunters instead of the hunted, Whitney decides to go to bed. While Whitney goes back to his quarters, Rainsford hears gun shots in the night, drops his pipe, and falls off their boat and into the Caribbean Sea while trying to retrieve it. After he realizes he cannot swim back to the boat, he swims to the nearby Ship-Trap Island, which was notorious for shipwrecks. He finds a palatial chateau inhabited by two Cossacks: the owner, General Zaroff, and his gigantic deaf-mute servant Ivan. The General, another big-game hunter, has heard of Rainsford from the book Rainsford wrote about hunting snow leopards in Tibet. After inviting him to dinner, General Zaroff tells Rainsford of how he became bored with hunting because it no longer challenged him. Thus, Zaroff says, he decided to live on an island where he could capture shipwrecked sailors to send them into the jungle supplied with food, a knife, and hunting clothes to be his quarry. After a three-hour head start, he would follow them to hunt and kill them. If the captives eluded him, Ivan, and a pack of hunting dogs for three days, General Zaroff would let the man go, but no one had eluded him that long thus far. Zaroff invites Rainsford to join him in his hunt but Rainsford refuses upon being appalled by Zaroff's motives. Zaroff then tells Rainsford that he can choose whether he will be the next person to be hunted or be whipped to death by Ivan. Rainsford chooses the former.
Ivan tossed Rainsford a tattered, brown bag that was peeling in a few places and onto Rainsfords hands. He brought his arm closer to his face in hope of identifying the flaky substance, and discovered it smelled horrible. If he didn't know any better, he could have written off the horrid, metallic scent a result of the bags old old age; but he did know better. Zaroff let a unsettling chuckle pass through his lips before informing Rainsford that he should run. there was no need for Rainsford to be told twice. He ran out of the house and into the warm, barely moonlit night...
Meanwhile, back on the boat, Whitney wakes from uneasy sleep. He knows that he dreamed of something, and that he was frightened, but he could not recall as to what exactly it was. These thought are quickly replaced by gentle twinges in his stomach, begging for a midnight snack. On the way to the boats kitchen, knowing of Rainsfords habits of staying up late, goes to his friends quarters to check if he also wanted a snack. Seeing that Rainsford was not in his quarters he searched the rest of the ship, only to find him nowhere aboard. He begins to call out his name, frantically searching the sea on either sides of the vessel. It is then he hears sounds of someone calling out for help. The voice is to small and high to be Rainsfords, but he looks for its origins anyway. he shines a light onto the sea, and sees the body of a girl floating face down in the water. he quickly retrieves the girl from the water using a life preserver tied to a rope.
"thank you," said the girl as he pulled her nearer to the boat. When he had finally pulled her aboard, he noticed she was very cold and limp. Assuming she had passed out, he decided to wrap her in a wool blanket, and call for help. On his way to the ships radio he set a soaked teddy bear, one that the girl had grasped in her fingers when he pulled her on, on a seat outside to dry. Whitney noticed how the moonlight made the toys light blue button eyes look as if they were glowing...
