for he is so wroth that some one will have to fall before him.”
“That must not move us,” says Helgi, “but still we will pull our
ship out, and so away to sea as soon as ever we get a wind.”
So they rowed out under an isle that lay there, and wait there
for a fair breeze.
The earl went about among the sailors, and tried them all, but
they, one and all, denied that they knew aught of Hrapp.
Then the earl said, “Now we will go to Thrain, my brother in
arms, and he will give Hrapp up, if he knows anything of him.”
After that they took a longship and went off to the merchant
ship.
Thrain sees the earl coming, and stands up and greets him kindly.
The earl took his greeting well and spoke thus, — “We are
seeking for a man whose name is Hrapp, and he is an Icelander.
He has done us all kind of ill; and now we will ask you to be
good enough to give him up, or to tell us where he is.”
“Ye know, lord,” said Thrain, “that I slew your outlaw, and
then put my fife in peril, and for that I had of you great
honour.”
“More honour shalt thou now have,” says the earl.
Now Thrain thought within himself, and could not make up his mind
how the earl would take it, so he denies that Hrapp is here, and
bade the earl to look for him. He spent little time on that, and
went on land alone, away from other men, and was then very wroth,
so that no man dared to speak to him.
“Shew me to Njal’s sons,” said the earl, “and I will force them
to tell me the truth.”
Then he was told that they had put out of the harbour.
“Then there is no help for it,” says the earl, “but still there
were two water-casks alongside of Thrain’s ship, and in them a
man may well have been hid, and if Thrain has bidden him, there
he must be; and now we will go a second time to see Thrain.”
Thrain sees that the earl means to put off again and said,
“However wroth the earl was last time, now he will be half as
wroth again, and now the life of every man on board the ship lies
at stake.”
They all gave their words to hide the matter, for they were all
sore afraid. Then they took some sacks out of the lading, and
put Hrapp down into the hold in their stead, and other sacks that
were light were laid over him.
Now comes the earl, just as they were done stowing Hrapp away.
Thrain greeted the earl well. The earl was rather slow to return
it, and they saw that the earl was very wroth.
Then said the earl to Thrain, “Give thou up Hrapp, for I am quite
sure that thou hast hidden him.”
“Where shall I have hidden him, Lord?” says Thrain.
“That thou knowest best,” says the earl; “but if I must guess,
then I think that thou hiddest him in the water-casks a while
ago.”
