In what ways does Saki play with the readers' expectations in the story "The Interlopers"?In other words, how does the action in the story follow...

This is an excellent question. One aspect of literature in
which Saki excels is the surprise ending, and this short story is certainly no
exception. Saki employs situational irony to devastating effect, letting his two main
characters experience a shocking reversal of fortunes, completely the opposite of what
we have been led to expect as readers.

Let us consider how
he achieves this. We are presented with two sworn enemies who, perhaps rather
ironically, are trapped together under the same tree. As each waits for their henchmen
to arrive and cut them lose, they begin to tell the other what will
happen:

"When
my men come to release us, you will wish, perhaps, that you were in a better plight than
caught poaching on a neighbour's land, shame on
you."

However, the close
proximity they are forced into and their shared fate leads them to resolve their
differences and strike up a surprising friendship. We, as readers, all want a happy
ending to a conflict such as this, and we join in with Ulrich and Georg as they begin to
dream of how they can show each other that their overtures of friendship are
real:

For a
space both men were silent, turning over in their minds the wonderful changes that this
dramatic reconciliation would brig about. In this cold, gloomy forest, with the wind
tearing in fitful gusts through the naked branches and whistling round the tree trunks,
they lay and waited for the help that would now bring release and succour to both
parties. 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.

Of course, this
heightens our expectation as readers as we wait to see whose men will come first and we
begin to dream likewise of the happy ending. Note how Saki deliberately plays with us by
letting the two men hear sounds that they conclude are a group of men searching for
them. Thus they shout out and Ulrich even gives a "joyful" cry when he sees figures
approaching, and then shares other information "gladly." It is only in the last few
lines that Saki hits us with the full force of the situational irony as we realise that
it is not men, but a pack of wolves who are coming to "help" the defenceless
men.