The Interlopers

The Interlopers Summary | Detailed Summary

This story is set on the eastern edge of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. An old family feud over a strip of forest has reached fevered pitch between Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym. Ulrich's family had won the lawsuit many years ago that had settled the quarrel, and Georg's family had lost. The dispossessed family has never accepted the ruling of the courts and continues to poach on the land. The victorious landowners have continued to punish the interlopers.

Ulrich and Georg have kept the feud alive out of a personal distate toward each other that dates from their childhood years. On this particular winter night, each has brought his followers to the forest to hunt not "four-footed quarry," but each other. Ulrich senses the unrest in the woods and has come to deal with its source.

Ulrich has separated himself from his companions, whom he has positioned for ambush on the crest of a hill. He moves ahead through the undergrowth, hoping to confront Georg face to face. He gets his wish and faces his adversary as he steps from behind a tree.

Both men carry rifles in their hands and hate and murder in their hearts. At last, each has the chance to achieve what he has longed for. As they look at each other, they find themselves constrained by their civilized upbringing. In that moment of hesitation, the howling storm brings a tree down on them with a "fierce shriek." Ulrich is pinned under the tree with one arm numb and useless, the other so tangled that he cannot get it free. His legs are equally useless under the trunk of the tree, and he is unable to move.

Georg lies close enough to touch him, alive but likewise pinned under the tree. Georg's face is bleeding, but he can hear that his old adversary is still alive. "So you're not killed as you ought to be, but you're caught, anyway," he says. "Ulrich von Gradwitz snared in his stolen forest. There's real justice for you!"

Ulrich and Georg exchange threats about what will happen to the other when their companions find them and declare that they will fight the feud to the death, one-on-one with no interlopers. Both know that it might be a long time before anyone will find either of them. They wait.

Ulrich and Georg give up the useless struggle to free themselves, and Ulrich manages to pull a wine flask from his coat pocket and get some of the liquid down his throat. They are cold in the winter temperature, and Ulrich offers his old enemy a drink from the flask if he can get it to him. Georg refuses, saying he can't see for the blood around his eyes, "and in any case I don't drink wine with an enemy."

As Ulrich lay there, the thought that his old hatred seemed to be seeping away began to invade his mind. He tells Georg that he can do whatever he wants if his men come, but if his own arrive, they will help his old enemy first, as if he were his guest. He ponders the foolishness of their lifelong quarrel and asks Georg to help him end the nonsense and become friends.

Georg ponders for awhile, and then speculates on what people would say, No one alive has ever seen a friendship between members of the two families. He says that if the two of them make this pact, there would be peace in the region. There would be no one else to interfere, "no interlopers from outside." They would share each other's companionship and hospitality. "And you offered me your wine-flask. . . . Ulrich von Gradwitz, I will be your friend."

Ulrich and Georg wait for help to come as they savor their newfound friendship. Each hopes his own supporters will be the first to come so he can be the first to show his generosity.

They decide to shout for help, and they raise their voices together. At last they see figures coming from the woods toward them.

"Are they your men?" asks Georg. Ulrich answers with terror in his voice. "No," he answers. "Wolves."