branches and foliage of a beech tree that comes crashing down in a storm, they are glad of the opportunity they believe has presented itself. Both expect their foresters to come soon to their rescue, and both look forward to fighting it out to the death between themselves and their men, with no "interlopers" to interfere with the battle.

However, the real interlopers are unanticipated by either man. Just after the two have decided to end their feud and become friends, a pack of wolves arrive that have been attracted by their cries for help. The wolves will reach the scene before any foresters, and both men will be devoured.

Both men have developed a narrow and arrogant mindset. They have only feared each other and have felt that only the other could claim ownership over the land. They have completely forgotten that nature has its owns ideas. The land is occupied by other predators, who can easily enough exert their own brute force or ownership over territory humans have deluded themselves into thinking is wholly theirs. Therefore, both the wolves and the two men serve as "interlopers" in this story.

The term interlopers refers to those who interfere in the affairs of others. This term takes different meaning as the story unfolds. In the beginning the two men refer to interlopers as anyone who might try to stand in the way of them killing each other. Later, after the two men are trapped under the tree, make peace, and end their families' feud, they refer to interlopers as anyone who might try to stop them from making peace. In the end of the story, it is ironic because it is the wolves who become the interlopers and because it is the wolves instead of men, the feud continues.

According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, an interloper is a trespasser, a person who intrudes in a place or situation. An interloper is also a meddler in the affairs of others.

In Saki's short story entitled "The Interlopers," Ulrich von Gradwitz patrols the dark forest one night in search of his enemy. He considers Georg Znaeym an interloper, a trespasser and "game-snatcher" on his "narrow strip of precipitous woodland" that has been reclaimed from the illegal possession of the Znaeym family "in a famous lawsuit." There is strong animosity between the two men, but when they suddenly confront each other as they each come around the trunk of a huge beech tree, they hesitate in a civilized moment before firing their rifles at each other. In that instant, lightning strikes the tree, and the men are pinioned beneath a tangle of branches.

Although not fatally injured, the two men are exasperated that they are trapped together. Each curses the other and adds insults, describing what his men will do to the other when they arrive. After some time, though, the two men reconcile with one another because they realize the folly of their animosity. Graciously, one tells the other than when his men come, he will have them aid the other. However, in another twist of fortune, there are new interlopers. In the "chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear," Ulrich von Gradwitz tells Znaeym that these new interlopers are wolves.

The first poster covered the definition and three possible interlopers in the story. However, I would argue that Georg and Ulrich are interlopers themselves. Represented in the external conflict of "man vs. nature" found in the story, the two characters may be considered trespassers (interlopers) in the forest. Both attempt to claim ownership, but this something that can only be offered by society.

In truth, the men and their civilization cannot truly claim the land, as evidenced by their inability to tame the natural world. The tree's attack on the men illustrates this idea, and by the end of the story the men are about to be attacked by a pack of wolves. Each man has abused his rights by coming into the forest with the hope of killing his enemy to gain possession of the woods. However, the wolves, beasts that belong to the wild, appear to be the true victors in this conflict, as it is implied they will kill their human enemy and rid their world of these human intruders.

Ulrich is hoping to find Georg, so when the two encounter each other "man to man" and "face to face" in the forest, it is Georg who has inadvertently run into Ulrich.

Ulrich "jealously guarded" that "narrow strip" of land because it was historically the site of George Znaeym's poaching. On the night of the story, Ulrich and his men are especially on the watch for Georg's poaching because Ulrich sees that the animals of the forest are disturbed. Normally during a night storm, the animals sleep or take safety in sheltering in the protective areas of the forest. Yet on this windy, stormy night, the roebuck and other animals are "running like driven things" because of the disturbance of Georg's poachers, "a human enemy."

Ulrich had banded together his foresters to watch the dark forest, not in quest of four-footed quarry, but to keep a look-out for the prowling thieves whom he suspected of being afoot .... The roebuck, which usually kept in the sheltered hollows during a storm-wind, were running like driven things to-night, and there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to sleep through the dark hours.

Ulrich walks away from his men, who are laying in "ambush" on the "crest" of a hill, and goes downhill into a steep "wild tangle of undergrowth" in secret hopes of encountering Georg, alone, "man to man," where, "with none to witness," he might make good use of his rifle and thus end the blood-feud between himself and Georg. As Ulrich thinks this, he rounds a beech tree and comes face-to-face with Georg, the "man he sought."

If only on this wild night, in this dark, lone spot, [Ulrich] might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness - that was the wish that was uppermost in his thoughts. And as he stepped round the trunk of a huge beech he came face to face with the man he sought.

Since Georg and his men are trying to secretly poach like "prowling thieves" the game of the forest, he is hoping not to encounter Ulrich, which may be the reason Georg takes the steep downhill route instead of going to the crest of the hill: hills are look-out spots for Ulrich's men; steep hide-a-ways are good for stealthy poachers. Therefore it is Georg who inadvertently encounters Ulrich--Ulrich, who is on the look-out to find Georg--in the disturbed forest on this "wild night, in this dark, lone spot." [Neither man shoots when they are face-to-face, but it is Georg who inadvertently encounters Ulrich, while it is Ulrich who consciously seeks Georg.]