One was the thought that it would be difficult to replace Ivan

. "I am still a beast at bay,

When the general and his pack reached the place by the sea, the Cossack stopped.

. He thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda.

Rainsford knew that Ivan must be holding the pack in leash.

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 think, Mr. Rainsford, I'll see what you can do against my whole pack. I'm going home for a rest now. Thank you for a most amusing evening."

He lived a year in a minute

if you are within sound of my voice, as I suppose you are, let me congratulate you. Not many men know how to make a Malay mancatcher.

othing escaped those searching black eyes,

The cat was coming again to play with the mouse.

Rainsford held his breath. The general's eyes had left the ground and were traveling 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 brown face.

only the devil himself could follow that complicated trail through the jungle after dark. But perhaps the general was a devil—

I have played the fox, now I must play the cat of the fable."

He was in a picture with a frame of water, and his operations, clearly, must take place within that frame.

suggest you wear moccasins; they leave a poorer trail. I suggest, too, that you avoid the big swamp in the southeast corner of the island. We call it Death Swamp.

. I drink to a foeman worthy of my steel - at last

. He saw the dead black eyes of the general on him, studying him.

The hunting was not good last night. The fellow lost his head. He made a straight trail that offered no problems at all. That's the trouble with these sailors; they have dull brains to begin with, and they do not know how to get about in the woods

I've one rather promising prospect

The smile on the general's face widened. "To date I have not lost," he said. Then he added, hastily: "I don't wish you to think me a braggart, Mr. Rainsford. Many of them afford only the most elementary sort of problem. Occasionally I strike a tartar. One almost did win. I eventually had to use the dogs."

"Dear me, what a righteous young man you are! I assure you I do not do the thing you suggest. That would be barbarous. I treat these visitors with every consideration. They get plenty of good food and exercise. They get into splendid physical condition.

. Rainsford's eyes saw only blackness, and then, as the general pressed a button, far out to sea Rainsford saw the flash of lights.

"where there's none; giant rocks with razor edges crouch like a sea monster with wide-open jaws. They can crush a ship as easily as I crush this nut."

This island is called Ship Trap," he answered. "Sometimes an angry god of the high seas sends them to me.

Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. The weak of the world were put here to give the strong pleasure. I am strong. Why should I not use my gift? If I wish to hunt, why should I not? I hunt the scum of the earth: sailors from tramp ships—lassars, blacks, Chinese, whites, mongrels—a thoroughbred horse or hound is worth more than a score of them."

grisly

`It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason."'

No animal had a chance with me any more. That is no boast; it is a mathematical certainty. The animal had nothing but his legs and his instinct. Instinct is no match for reason.

hunting had ceased to be what you call 'a sporting proposition.' It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater bore than perfection

why I enjoy the problems of the chase."

analytical

They were no match at all for a hunter with his wits about him, and a high-powered rifle.

I continued to hunt—grizzliest in your Rockies, crocodiles in the Ganges, rhinoceroses in East Africa. It was in Africa that the Cape buffalo hit me and laid me up for six months. As soon as I recovered I started for the Amazon to hunt jaguars, for I had heard they were unusually cunning.

Oh, it isn't here naturally, of course. I have to stock the island.""What have you imported, general?" Rainsford asked. "Tigers?"

"Hurled me against a tree," said the general. "Fractured my skull. But I got the brute."

lapses.

We do our best to preserve the amenities of civilization here.

About the hall were mounted heads of many animals—lions, tigers, elephants, moose, bears; larger or more perfect specimens Rainsford had never seen.

he put it on, noticed that it came from a London tailor who ordinarily cut and sewed for none below the rank of duke.

Cossack,

that there was an original, almost bizarrequality about the general's face.

menacing look in the eyes did not change. The revolver pointing as rigidly as if the giant were a statue. He gave no sign that he understood Rainsford's words, or that he had even heard them.

discerned

The door opened then—opened as suddenly as if it were on a spring—and Rainsford stood blinking in the river of glaring gold light that poured out

. But it was no mirage, he found, when he opened the tall spiked iron gate. The stone steps were real enough; the massive door with a leering gargoyle for a knocker was real enough; yet above it all hung an air of unreality

Mirage,

cartridge.

crimson.

floundered

An unbroken front of snarled and ragged jungle fringed the shore.

perils

crags

on a night less calm he would have been shattered against them.

He heard it again; then it was cut short by another noise, crisp, staccato.

Rainsford heard a sound. It came out of the darkness, a high screaming sound, the sound of an animal in an extremity of anguish and terror.

He strained his eyes in the direction from which the reports had come, but it was like trying to see through a blanket.

Somewhere, off in the blackness, someone had fired a gun three times.

"that I could sleep without closing my eyes; the night would be my eyelids—"

An evil place can, so to speak, broadcast vibrations of evil

One superstitious sailor can taint the whole ship's company with his fear."

as if the air about us was actually poisonous.

The place has a reputation—a bad one."

he world is made up of two classes—the hunters and the huntees.

For the hunter," amended Whitney. "Not for the jaguar."

It's like moist black velvet."

It's rather a mystery—"