"The Interlopers" by Saki
By Saki
1- In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians, 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.
trees, woods, snow
6- 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 civilisation cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbour in cold blood and without word spoken, except for an offence against his hearth and honour. And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action a deed of Nature's own violence overwhelmed them both.
Ulrich von Gradwitz and Georg Znaeym are hunting each other in the woods.
What is ironic about the highlighted passages from "The Interlopers" by Saki?
The men never find each other in the woods, and both get lost among the trees.
Both of the men engage in a battle to the death upon seeing each other.
Despite hunting each other, neither is able to kill the other when they meet in the woods.