![]() ![]() "One superstitious sailor can taint the whole ship's company with his fear." What I felt was a-a mental chill a sort of sudden dread." The sea was as flat as a plate-glass window. Now, you mustn't laugh when I tell you this-I did feel something like a sudden chill. All I could get out of him was `This place has an evil name among seafaring men, sir.' Then he said to me, very gravely, `Don't you feel anything?'-as if the air about us was actually poisonous. Those fishy blue eyes held a look I never saw there before. "Yes, even that tough-minded old Swede, who'd go up to the devil himself and ask him for a light. "They were a bit strange, now you mention it. Didn't you notice that the crew's nerves seemed a bit jumpy today?" But it's gotten into sailor lore, somehow. Even cannibals wouldn't live in such a God-forsaken place. Do you think we've passed that island yet?" The world is made up of two classes-the hunters and the huntees. "This hot weather is making you soft, Whitney. "Even so, I rather think they understand one thing-fear. ![]() "Perhaps the jaguar does," observed Whitney. ![]() "You're a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. "Don't talk rot, Whitney," said Rainsford. "The best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford. We should have some good hunting up the Amazon. I hope the jaguar guns have come from Purdey's. "It will be light enough in Rio," promised Whitney. "You've good eyes," said Whitney, with a laugh," and I've seen you pick off a moose moving in the brown fall bush at four hundred yards, but even you can't see four miles or so through a moonless Caribbean night." "Can't see it," remarked Rainsford, trying to peer through the dank tropical night that was palpable as it pressed its thick warm blackness in upon the yacht. ![]() "The old charts call it `Ship-Trap Island,"' Whitney replied." A suggestive name, isn't it? Sailors have a curious dread of the place. "OFF THERE to the right-somewhere-is a large island," said Whitney." It's rather a mystery-" The Most Dangerous Game, movie poster, 1932 ![]()
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