When I was 7 years old my family bought a huge house into which our huge family moved. (7 bedrooms and still I never had a bedroom of my own in all the years we lived there)

In the attic of this 1862 house were stacks of books that eventually I and my brother just older devoured. Some of the books had 'adult' themes (For instance, in one book the male and female protagonists were constantly at vehement odds. When they both inadvertently chose an abandoned barn to dash into to escape a rain squall, I had no idea why they came out flushed and arm in arm after the storm was over.)

Included in this treasure trove was a red-covered book with short stories. One of the stories was one called 'The Most Dangerous Game'. It was a chilling (at least to a 10 year old!) story of a man who was shipwrecked onto an island guarded by vicious dogs. There his host is a man who, it develops, has a game wherein a victim is given X number of hours head start and informed that at a certain time the dogs and the host with his high-powered rifle will come after him.

There is a happy ending, given the premise...