interference frominterlopers, he encounters interlopers originating in the forest and that (2) while both men want to kill each other, they are crushed by the forest and confronted with killers from the forest.

What Is Ulrich's Wish?

On this night of violent storm and disturbed creatures in the "forest lands of Gradwitz," Ulrich von Gradwitz stood guarding against the poacher Georg Znaeym. Georg is the son of a poacher who was the son of a poacher who disputed the legal ownership of the forest lands and took his dispute to the "Courts" to be settled by a "famous lawsuit." The Znaeym family never "acquiesced in the judgment of the Courts," and the courts were the original interlopers in the conflict over the forest, the first "cursed interlopers [who] come between us." The Znaeyms began an earnest campaign of poaching from the forest lands of Gradwitz. Now, when Ulrich thirsts for the other's "blood," he wishes that—on this wildly stormy night, with no witnesses around, deep in his own forest and separate from his men for a few minutes—he might meet Georg "man to man," end his life and, with it, Georg's poaching from Gradwitz forest. 

[Ulrich] wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight and sound of the marauders. . . [That] he might come across Georg Znaeym, man to man, with none to witness—that was the wish.

Half of Ulrich's wish comes true. He steps "round the trunk of a huge beech" and comes "face to face" with Georg. Both enemies glare at each other "for a long moment," each with a rifle in hand. They are civilized men, not used to shooting another man in cold blood, never having had to defend "hearth and honor." Neither shoots. In that moment between them, bred of shared civilization, nature proves itself a second interloper in the matter of the forest: a branch of the "huge beech" falls on both men with a "splitting crash" in a "fierce shriek of the storm." Ulrich's wish is to be "man to man" with Georg and, in an unwitnessed moment, to kill him. The first part comes true: he meets George "face to face." Yet nature's beech tree interloper prevents either man from descending from their civilized impulses into murder, as this is what they both wish to do, even from their youth: "as boys they had thirsted for one another's blood." Consequently, the second part of Ulrich's wish does not come true; in fact, he changes his mind about what he wants and asks Georg to be his friend.

What is ironic is the role of the interlopers in the story. Interlopers are individuals who intrude themselves into matters that are not their own, where they are not wanted, and where they are seen as not belonging. The Znaeyms considered the judges of the "Courts" who ruled against them to be interlopers, which is why Georg—ironically—tells Ulrich that they will fight the matter of the forest out between themselves without interlopers interfering:

"Good," snarled Georg, "good. We fight this quarrel out to the death, you and I and our foresters, with no cursed interlopers to come between us."

It is ironic that, while Georg's family for three generations have railed against the interlopers of the "Courts," who put the forest into the hands of Ulrich's family, it is now the forest itself that plays the interloper and crushes both men beneath a massive beech branch. It is ironic that while life was strong and the will to live strong—for three generations, in both families—the will to rail against interlopers was stronger, causing families to dream of blood, not peace. Yet, ironically, here they are, trapped—in danger of a wintry death—by nature's own forest interloper. It is ironic that once they decide to view each other as unique human beings with feelings, bone and blood, pain and suffering, and to become friends and share life together on correct social and legal terms, nature sends other interlopers through the forest to finish the issue once and for all. Ulrich and Georg decide for life and friendship, while nature decides for interlopers who kill. Nature sends interlopers that are hungry, running, "making all the speed they can, brave lads": wolves.

As the old saying goes: be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it. This particular saying applies to the hapless Ulrich von Gradwitz in Saki's short story “The Interlopers.”

As the story begins, Ulrich is out and about patrolling the forest lands of Gradwitz, which have formed the basis for a long and bitter feud between Ulrich's family and their neighbors, the Znaeyms. Although these forests are positively teeming with game, Ulrich is primarily on the lookout for a human enemy, namely Georg Znaeym, who may well be attempting to trespass on land that he believes belongs to his family.

In the absence of Georg, however, Ulrich is happy to make do with a wild beast that he can shoot with his rifle. He wishes that one such creature would emerge from the depths of the woods and come within his line of vision, or the range of his gun.

Eventually, Ulrich gets his wish, though not quite in the way he intended. Wild beasts do indeed emerge from the woods to come within the range of vision. However, they're not game animals, but a pack of slavering, half-starved wolves.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't present much of a problem as Ulrich could probably scare off a wolf pack with one loud blast from his rifle. But when the wolves emerge from the forest, the hapless Ulrich finds himself pinned beneath a fallen tree alongside his bitter enemy Georg Znaeym. When Ulrich waited for “some beast of the woods” to come within the range of his vision at the start of the story, this is most certainly not what he had in mind.

In "The Interlopers" as Ulrich von Gradwitz hunts for the "game" he has long sought, he comes face-to-face with his enemy, Georg Znaeym, "the inheritor of the quarrel and tireless game-snatcher and raider of the disputed border-forest."  For generations there has been a dispute over the borders of property; despite the issue's having been settled in a legal court, Znaeym's family never "acquiesced in the judgment."  This refusal of judgment is the reason von Gradwitz hunts his enemy, the "game" he seeks and wishes to encounter.  Here the word game is a metaphor for Znaeym, his prey on this winter night.

However, the greatest metaphor in Saki's story is the title:  "The Interlopers," the forces of Nature that interfere with the settlement of the men's feud.  For, when the two enemies encounter each other suddenly, vis-a-vis, their civilized natures do not allow them to react immediately.  In this brief window of time, "a deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both."  A mass of falling beech tree descends upon them, pinning them. 

As they are held prisoner by the massive branches, von Gradwitz looks across "with something like a throb of pity to where his enemy lay...."  This simile is the beginning of the change of heart for the land owner who feels his old fierce hatred...dying down." He tells Georg Znaeym,

Neighbor, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I--I will ask you to be my friend.

On considering this, Znaeym remarks that such an arrangement would bring peace to their people.  He imagines how their friendship will be expressed in dinners and hunts.  Both men reflect upon the "wonderful changes that this dramatic reconciliation" will effect.  But, as each waits, hoping his own men will arrive first so that he may be "the first to show honorable attention to the enemy that had become a friend," the interloper of Nature again intrudes: wolves have answered their calls for help.

First, it is important to answer what Ulrich wanted.  He wished more than anything else to meet the man that he hated, to kill him.  The two men hated each other as they inherited a feud that went back at least two generations. 

As Ulrich is wising for this, he comes face to face with the man he detests. Here is the quote:

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

The logic of the irony is that we usually do not get what we wish.  The idea of wishful thinking encapsulates this idea.  But on this occasion Ulrich comes face to face with Georg.  The other irony is that the one he hates eventually becomes his friend. By the end of the story the two men are not only reconciled, but they seek to outdo each other in kindness.