Now when Kolskegg and the house-carles had been three nights in
the isles, Thorgeir Starkad's son had news of that, and sends
word to his namesake that he should come to meet him on
Threecorner ridge.
After that Thorgeir of the Threecorner busked him with eleven
men; he rides up on the ridge and there waits for his namesake.
And now Gunnar is at home in his house, and those namesakes ride
into a wood hard by. There such a drowsiness came over them that
they could do naught else but sleep. So they hung their shields
up in the boughs, and tethered their horses, and laid their
weapons by their sides.
Njal was that night up in Thorolfsfell, and could not sleep at
all, but went out and in by turns.
Thorhilda asked Njal why he could not sleep?
"Many things now flit before my eyes," said he; "I see many
fetches of Gunnar's bitter foes, and what is very strange is
this, they seem to be mad with rage, and yet they fare without
plan or purpose."
A little after, a man rode up to the door and got off his horse's
back and went in, and there was come the shepherd of Thorhilda
and her husband.
"Didst thou find the sheep?" she asked.
"I found what might be more worth," said he.
"What was that?" asked Njal.
"I found twenty-four men up in the wood yonder; they had tethered
their horses, but slept themselves. Their shields they had hung
up in the boughs."
But so closely had he looked at them that he told of all their
weapons and wargear and clothes, and then Njal knew plainly who
each of them must have been, and said to him, "'Twere good
hiring if there were many such shepherds; and this shall ever
stand to thy good; but still I will send thee on an errand."
He said at once he would go.
"Thou shalt go," says Njal, "to Lithend and tell Gunnar that he
must fare to Gritwater, and then send after men; but I will go to
meet with those who are in the wood and scare them away. This
thing hath well come to pass, so that they shall gain nothing by
this journey, but lose much."
The shepherd set off and told Gunnar as plainly as he could the
whole story. Then Gunnar rode to Gritwater and summoned men to
him.
Now it is to be told of Njal how he rides to meet these
namesakes.
"Unwarily ye lie here," he says, "or for what end shall this
journey have been made? And Gunnar is not a man to be trifled
with. But if the truth must be told then, this is the greatest
treason. Ye shall also know this, that Gunnar is gathering
force, and he will come here in the twinkling of an eye, and slay
you all, unless ye ride away home."
They bestirred them at once, for they were in great fear, and
took their weapons, and mounted their horses and galloped home
under the Threecorner.
Njal fared to meet Gunnar and bade him not to break up his
company.
"But I will go and seek for an atonement; now they will be finely
frightened; but for this treason no less a sum shall be paid when
one has to deal with all of them, than shall be paid for the
slaying of one or other of those namesakes, though such a thing
should come to pass. This money I will take into my keeping, and
so lay it out that it may be ready to thy hand when thou hast
need of it."