The most dangerous game by richard connell notes

Nevertheless, Rainsford remains calm in spite of his fear and works methodically to evade death and even defeat Zaroff. Despite his desire to kill his pursuers, however, Rainsford keeps his perspective and continues to value human life, therefore remaining more man than beast.

In contrast, the genteel General Zaroff reveals himself to be more animal than human by rationally concluding that people are no different from other living creatures and by ruthlessly hunting men to satisfy his inner bloodlust.

Although Rainsford and Zaroff have similar backgrounds and are both wealthy hunters, they have radically different interpretations of their wartime experiences. Zaroff tells Rainsford about his days slumming in the Russian army, a brief dalliance commanding a Cossack cavalry division that ultimately distracted him from his love of the hunt.

Rainsford, however, remembers the grueling, harrowing aspects of warfare. He recalls desperately digging trenches with insufficient tools while on the European frontlines in World War I. The sense of desperation and powerlessness that his war years instilled in him revisit him during his three-day trial on the island. He came to an enormous mansion and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal a gigantic man with no shirt on pointing a revolver at Rainsford.

Sanger Rainsford told the man his name and explained that he had fallen off his yacht. Suddenly, General Zaroff appeared, called off the man with the rifle, shook Rainsford's hand, and told him he had read his book. He explained that his assistant Ivan was deaf then he invited him in. Ivan helped to show Rainsford to a bedroom where he was able to change his clothes. He noticed the many mounted animal heads along the walls.

When he returned, General Zaroff offered Rainsford a cocktail and some soup. They talk about hunting, and General Zaroff says he likes to hunt the biggest game available: people.

Rainsford protests that what he says refers to murder, but Zaroff insists there's a difference. He treats his "guests" kindly, providing them with food, shelter, and exercise.

Of course, he is the one who lures these guests to his house by causing their ships to have accidents, leaving them stranded on his island. He tells Rainsford he has about a dozen people currently in his training school that he can show him.

When it is time to go hunting, he supplies his adversary with food, a knife, and a three-hour head start. If the person can survive for three days, he wins. If the people refuse to go hunting, he turns them over to Ivan. So far, General Zaroff has never lost. He hears the screeching sound of an animal in agony and heads straight for it, until the cries end abruptly with a pistol shot. Exhausted, Rainsford reaches the rocky shore and immediately falls into a deep sleep. He wakes the next afternoon and sets off in search of food, forced to skirt the thick growth of the jungle and walk along the shore.

He soon comes to a bloody, torn-up patch of vegetation where a large animal had thrashed about. He finds an empty rifle cartridge nearby. At first, Rainsford thinks the chateau is a mirage, until he opens the iron gate and knocks on the door. Ivan, a burly man with a gun, answers and refuses to help Rainsford until another man, General Zaroff, appears from inside the chateau and invites Rainsford inside.

Zaroff greets Rainsford warmly and has Ivan show him to a room where he can dress for dinner. The huge, lavish dining hall features numerous stuffed and mounted heads, trophies that Zaroff has brought back from his many hunting adventures around the world. Zaroff states that he now hunts far more dangerous game on his island. He recounts past hunts, from his childhood in the Crimea to hunting big game around the world, but goes on to describe how the sport eventually became too easy.

Zaroff hints, however, that he has found a new kind of animal to hunt, one with courage, cunning, and reason. After a fitful night of insomnia and light dozing, the sound of a distant pistol shot awakens him in the early morning. General Zaroff reappears at the chateau at lunchtime, sad that hunting humans no longer satisfies him.

He laments that the sailors he lures to the island present less and less of a challenge. Rainsford demands to leave the island at once, but the general refuses and forces Rainsford to be his new prey in the next hunt, hoping that Rainsford, as a renowned big-game hunter, will provide the challenge he seeks.

Zaroff promises to set Rainsford free if he lives through the next three days.