The Interlopers

By Hector Hugh Munro

In this short story, two feuding neighbors venture into the woods carrying guns; one to hunt, the other to put down a trespasser.
The two are fated to meet and reap the rewards of their bitter quarrel over a piece of land.

George Henry Durrie, Hunter in Winter Wood, 1860

In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Karpathians, a man stood one winter
night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within the range
of his vision, and, later, of his rifle. 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.

Vocabulary Development: The forest lands of Gradwitz were of wide extent and well
1. precipitous (adj.) – very steep stocked with game; the narrow strip of precipitous woodland
that lay on its outskirt was not remarkable for the game it
The wooded slope was precipitous—a harbored or the shooting it afforded, but it was the most
vertical cliff—and hard to climb. jealously guarded of all its owner's territorial possessions. A
famous law suit, in the days of his grandfather, had
wrested it from the illegal possession of a neighboring Vocabulary Development:
family of petty landowners; the dispossessed party had 2. acquiesce (v.) (used with in) – to accept
never acquiesced in the judgment of the Courts, and a something reluctantly but without protest
long series of poaching affrays and similar scandals had While I did not want to go to the show
with Laura, her begging eventually
embittered the relationships between the families for
caused me to acquiesce.
three generations. The neighbor feud had grown into a
personal one since Ulrich had come to be head of his
3. affray (n.) – an instance of fighting in a
family; if there was a man in the world whom he public place that disturbs the peace
detested and wished ill to, it was Georg Znaeym, the What began as a simple squabble
inheritor of the quarrel and the tireless game-snatcher between friends turned into an affray
and raider of the disputed border forest. The feud among several people.
might, perhaps, have died down or been compromised
if the personal ill-will of the two men had not stood in the way. As boys, they had thirsted for one another's
blood; as men, each prayed that misfortune might fall on the other, and this wind-scourged winter night,
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 from across the land
boundary. The roebuck, which usually kept in the sheltered hollows during a storm-wind, were running
like driven things tonight, and there was movement and unrest among the creatures that were wont to
sleep through the dark hours. Assuredly there was a disturbing element in the forest, and Ulrich could
guess the quarter from whence it came.

He strayed away by himself from the watchers whom he

Vocabulary Development: had placed in ambush on the crest of the hill, and
4. wont (adj.) – (of a person) in the habit wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild
of doing something; accustomed tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks
He was wont to arise at 5:30 every and listening through the whistling and skirling of the
morning. wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight
and sound of the marauders. If only on this wild night, in
5. marauder (n.) – people who roam
this dark, lone spot, he might come across Georg Znaeym,
around in search of loot, or goods to steal
The man kept a sharp lookout for man to man, with none to witness--that was the wish
marauders who might be prowling that was uppermost in his thoughts. And as he stepped
through the woods. round the trunk of a huge beech he came face to face
with the man he sought.

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 honor. And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action,
a deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both. 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. Ulrich von Gradwitz found himself stretched on the ground, one arm numb
beneath him and the other held almost as helplessly in a tight tangle of forked branches, while both legs
were pinned beneath the fallen mass. His heavy shooting boots had saved his feet from being crushed to
pieces, but if his fractures were not as serious as they might have been, at least it was evident that he
could not move from his present position till someone came to release him. The descending twig had
slashed the skin of his face, and he had to wink away some drops of blood from his eyelashes before he
could take in a general view of the disaster. At his side, so near that under ordinary circumstances he
could almost have touched him, lay Georg Znaeym, alive and struggling, but obviously as helplessly
pinioned down as himself. All round them lay a thick-strewn wreckage of splintered branches and broken
twigs.

Relief at being alive and exasperation at his captive plight

brought a strange medley of pious thank-offerings and
Vocabulary Development:
sharp curses to Ulrich's lips. Georg, who was early blinded 6. exasperation (n.) – great annoyance
His exasperation at being captured
with the blood which trickled across his eyes, stopped his
was so great that he cursed aloud.
struggling for a moment to listen, and then gave a short,
snarling laugh. 7. retort (v.) – to reply in a sharp or witty
"So you're not killed, as you ought to be, but you're way
caught, anyway," he cried; "caught fast. Ho, what a jest, When the conversation turned to
critical comments about her outfit,
Ulrich von Gradwitz snared in his stolen forest. There's
Brenda had to retort about Emma’s
real justice for you!"
crooked teeth.
And he laughed again, mockingly and savagely.

"I'm caught in my own forest-land," retorted Ulrich. "When my men come to release us you will wish,
perhaps, that you were in a better plight than caught poaching on a neighbor's land, shame on you."

Georg was silent for a moment; then he answered quietly:

"Are you sure that your men will find much to release? I have men, too, in the forest to-night, close behind
me, and –they– will be here first and do the releasing. When they drag me out from under these damned
branches, it won't need much clumsiness on their part to roll this mass of trunk right over on the top of
you. Your men will find you dead under a fallen beech tree. For form's sake I shall send my condolences
to your family."

"It is a useful hint," said Ulrich fiercely. "My men had orders to follow in ten minutes' time, seven of
which must have gone by already, and when they get me out--I will remember the hint. Only as you
will have met your death poaching on my lands I don't think I can decently send any message of
condolence to your family."

"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."

"The same to you, Georg Znaeym, forest thief, game snatcher."

Both men spoke with the bitterness of possible defeat before them, for each knew that it might be long
before his men would seek him out or find him; it was a bare matter of chance which party would arrive
first on the scene.

Both had now given up the useless struggle to free themselves from the mass of wood that held them
down; Ulrich limited his endeavors to an effort to bring his one partially free arm near enough to his outer
 coat pocket to draw out his wine-flask. Even when
Vocabulary Development: he had accomplished that operation it was long
8. draught (n.) /draft/ – a single act of drinking before he could manage the unscrewing of the
or inhaling stopper or get any of the liquid down his throat. But
She downed the remaining beer in one what a Heaven-sent draught it seemed! It was an
draft.
open winter, and little snow had fallen as yet, hence
the captives suffered less from the cold than might
9. languor (n.) – weakness; weariness
have been the case at that season of the year;
After hours of hard work, he felt great
languor, and this exhaustion lasted all day. nevertheless, the wine was warming and reviving to
the wounded man, and he looked across with
something like a throb of pity to where his enemy lay, just keeping the groans of pain and weariness from
crossing his lips.

"Could you reach this flask if I threw it over to you?" asked Ulrich suddenly; "there is good wine in it, and
one may as well be as comfortable as one can. Let us drink, even if tonight one of us dies."

"No, I can scarcely see anything; there is so much blood caked round my eyes," said Georg, "and in any
case I don't drink wine with an enemy."

Ulrich was silent for a few minutes, and lay listening to the weary screeching of the wind. An idea was
slowly forming and growing in his brain, an idea that gained strength every time that he looked across at
the man who was fighting so grimly against pain and exhaustion. In the pain and languor that
Ulrich himself was feeling, the old fierce hatred seemed to be dying down.

"Neighbor," he said presently, "do as you please if your

men come first. It was a fair compact. But as for me, I've Vocabulary Development:
changed my mind. If my men are the first to come you shall 10. compact (n.)– a formal agreement
be the first to be helped, as though you were my guest. We or contract between two or more
parties
have quarreled like devils all our lives over this stupid strip
The details of the compact between
of forest, where the trees can't even stand upright in a
the two countries are confidential.
breath of wind. Lying here tonight thinking, I've come to
think we've been rather fools; there are better things in life 11. Sylvester night (n.) – feast day
than getting the better of a boundary dispute. Neighbor, if honoring Saint Sylvester, observed on
you will help me to bury the old quarrel I—I will ask you to December 31
be my friend."

Georg Znaeym was silent for so long that Ulrich thought, perhaps, he had fainted with the pain of his
injuries. Then he spoke slowly and in jerks.

"How the whole region would stare and gabble if we rode into the market square together. No one living
can remember seeing a Znaeym and a von Gradwitz talking to one another in friendship. And what peace
there would be among the forester folk if we ended our feud tonight. And if we choose to make peace
among our people there is none other to interfere, no interlopers from outside… You would come and
keep the Sylvester night beneath my roof, and I would come and feast on some high day at your castle…
I would never fire a shot on your land, save when you invited me as a guest; and you should come and
shoot with me down in the marshes where the wildfowl are. In all the countryside there are none that
could hinder if we willed to make peace. I never thought to have wanted to do other than hate you all my
life, but I think I have changed my mind about things too, this last half hour. And you offered me your
wine flask… Ulrich von Gradwitz, I will be your friend."

For a space both men were silent, turning over in

Vocabulary Development: their minds the wonderful changes that this
12. succor (n.) /ˈsəkər/ – help given to dramatic reconciliation would bring about. In the
someone in distress; relief cold, gloomy forest, with the wind tearing in fitful
Unable to free themselves, they waited for gusts through the naked branches and whistling
rescuers to give them succor. round the tree trunks, they lay and waited for the
help that would now bring release and succor to
13. lull (n.) – a temporary interval of quiet or both parties. And each prayed a private prayer that
lack of activity
his men might be the first to arrive, so that he might
For two days there had been a lull in the
be the first to show honorable attention to the
fighting.
enemy that had become a friend.

Presently, as the wind dropped for a moment, Ulrich broke silence.

"Let's shout for help," he said; "in this lull our voices may carry a little way."

"They won't carry far through the trees and undergrowth," said Georg, "but we can try. Together, then."

The two raised their voices in a prolonged hunting call.

"Together again," said Ulrich a few minutes later, after listening in vain for an answering halloo.

"I heard nothing but the pestilential wind," said Georg hoarsely.

There was silence again for some minutes, and then Ulrich gave a joyful cry.

"I can see figures coming through the wood. They are following in the way I came down the hillside."

Both men raised their voices in as loud a shout as they could muster.

"They hear us! They've stopped. Now they see us. They're running down the hill towards us," cried Ulrich.

"How many of them are there?" asked Georg.

"I can't see distinctly," said Ulrich; "nine or ten,"

"Then they are yours," said Georg; "I had only seven out with me."

"They are making all the speed they can, brave lads," said Ulrich gladly.

"Are they your men?" asked Georg. "Are they your men?" he repeated impatiently as Ulrich did not
answer.

"No," said Ulrich with a laugh, the idiotic chattering laugh of a man unstrung with hideous fear.

"Who are they?" asked Georg quickly, straining his eyes to see what the other would gladly not have seen.
"Wolves."