I feel the author's great detail in the setting and imagery made a great setup for the coming events of the story. .
There is a sense of irony in the story as he describes the feelings the two men have toward each other and their fate that evening. The narrator describes their ill nature, "as boys they had thirsted for each other's blood, as men each prayed that misfortune might fall on one another"." I am unaware if the author intended this; however, as Duper discusses Saki's use of trickery I feel he failed to mention that maybe this line was a spoiler to the events to come. The author gives great details to the nature surrounding the character, "amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind." All these details are provided right before our feuding characters meet face to face. It is the perfect setup for a story of human versus nature, nature and and all its components become more visual and have more characteristics than our human characters in the story. These same components show to be even stronger than our characters and win the fight between them.
Even though Ulrich and Georg "thirsted for each other's blood" and the two had "murder uppermost in his mind " the two when face to face stood in silence glaring at each other. As Rena Korb states, "both men are unable to give themselves up to wildness of nature."(Korb 2) With this being said it is this that becomes the very beginning struggle of man versus nature. However, all this time they contemplate their actions of murdering one another and are unable to do it due to morals. All the while, their true opponent, nature, did not wait for anything. "A deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both. We can agree with Dupler when explains this moment as another plot twist of Saki's, however, I believe it is nature's role reversal for these two men who have now become trapped like the prey they usually hunt.
