But the game for whose presence he kept so keen an outlook was none that figured in the sportsman’s calendar as lawful and proper for the chase; Ulrich von Gradwitz patrolled the dark forest in quest of a human enemy.
In the opening of the story, Saki sets the stage for a different type of hunting – between two men. Readers, warned about the inversion of traditional hunting practices, come to expect a battle between two humans. This expectation helps set the stage for the surprise ending in which both humans end up being hunted by wild animals.
“Who are they?" asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other would gladly not have seen.
"Wolves."
Saki is well known for his surprise endings. "The Interlopers" provides yet another instance when the reader is set up to expect one thing and instead encounters another. Saki interrupts what could have been a happier ending by introducing a pack of wolves instead of a rescue party. Influenced by the tradition of Greek dramas, Saki leaves the details of gore off the page, ending before the wolves descend upon the two men (Byrne 174).
And each prayed a private prayer that his men might be the first to arrive, so that he might be the first to show honourable attention to the enemy that had become a friend.
Even after realizing the error of their ways and apologizing to one another, the two men are still very much self-involved. They even attempt to outdo each other in their altruism. Vanity and ego remain a strong part of their characters.
And if we choose to make peace among our people there is none other to interfere, no interlopers from outside…
The men perceive themselves as rightful inhabitants of the forest and other people as interlopers. So self-involved, they do not consider nature to be a potential interloper (though it has already interfered in their affairs by trapping them underneath a tree branch). This relates to the theme of the unpredictability of nature.
I’ve come to think we’ve been rather fools; there are better things in life than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbour, if you will help me to bury the old quarrel I–I will ask you to be my friend.
In this quote we see how nature forces reconciliation between the two men. This relates to the theme of nature as corrective as the men realize the futility of their feud and correct their behavior.
“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. Death and damnation to you, Ulrich von Gradwitz.”
Again, this quote demonstrates that the two men are oblivious to the notion that they could be interlopers in nature. Additionally, they also contribute to their undoing by failing to realize that their fates are intertwined. Instead, they each speak as though one will die at the mercy of the other, never considering the identical plan nature has for both of them.
The two enemies stood glaring at one another for a long silent moment. Each had a rifle in his hand, each had hate in his heart and murder uppermost in his mind. The chance had come to give full play to the passions of a lifetime. But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilization cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbor in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour.
This scene emphasizes the impotence of both men despite the build-up of a generations-old feud. This impotence arises in part from Aristocratic customs, which chill innate and carnal desires for violence and replace them with mannerly rules of hostility. As we see later, nature is free from these constraints and acts without hesitation.
And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both.
Here Saki demonstrates the superiority of nature over man. Where man hesitates, nature acts – decisively and effectively. By capitalizing the "n" in "Nature" Saki also presents the setting as a main character in the story.
A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them.
This is a turning point in the story. Ironically the land over which the two men fight is what physically traps them. This also relates to the theme of revenge as downfall since the generations-old feud that leads both men into the forest that night ultimately debilitates them.
Assuredly there was a disturbing element in the forest, and Ulrich could guess the quarter from whence it came.
The omniscient narrator establishes a tone of foreboding and danger as Ulrich embarks on his hunt. This sentence also foreshadows the revelation that the men are the disturbing element in the forest (or interlopers, if you will) and are ultimately taken out by nature.
