The Interlopers
Complete textTwo men whose families have long disputed a patch of forest hunt for one another on a winter night. An unexpected accident interrupts their armed confrontation and places the quarrel within a landscape neither man's claim to ownership can control.
Continue readingAbout The Interlopers
The story compresses a long inherited feud into a brief encounter governed by physical dependence. Each man initially imagines the scene through victory and revenge. With movement restricted, speech acquires a different purpose, while the forest's sounds and forces remain indifferent to the legal and personal claims made upon it.
Reading focus
Compare the men's claims to the forest with their actual power over what happens within it.
This reading edition contains 2,133 words in 1 original section. Read the text online with adjustable type and three colour themes, or keep a printable PDF.
Author: Saki. Language: English. Reading edition: 28 October 2026.
Opening excerpt
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.
Contents
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Is this the complete The Interlopers?
This edition contains the complete English literary text, with 1 section and 2,133 words. This reading edition preserves the checked English text and its section order. No study notes have been added.
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