“Well!” says Thrain, “I would rather not be taken for a liar, far
sooner would I that ye should search the ship.”
Then the earl went on board the ship and hunted and hunted, but
found him not.
“Dost thou speak me free now?” says Thrain.
“Far from it,” says the earl, “and yet I cannot tell why we
cannot find him, but methinks I see through it all when I come on
shore, but when I come here, I can see nothing.”
With that he made them row him ashore. He was so wroth that
there was no speaking to him. His son Sweyn was there with him,
and he said, “A strange turn of mind this to let guiltless men
smart for one’s wrath!”
Then the earl went away alone aside from other men, and after
that he went back to them at once, and said, “Let us row out to
them again,” and they did so.
“Where can he have been hidden?” says Sweyn.
“There’s not much good in knowing that,” says the earl, “for now
he will be away thence; two sacks lay there by the rest of the
lading, and Hrapp must have come into the lading in their place.”
Then Thrain began to speak, and said, “They are running off the
ship again, and they must mean to pay us another visit. Now we
will take him out of the lading, and stow other things in his
stead, but let the sacks still lie loose. They did so, and then
Thrain spoke: “Now let us fold Hrapp in the sail.”
It was then brailed up to the yard, and they did so.
Then the earl comes to Thrain and his men, and he was very wroth,
and said, “Wilt thou now give up the man, Thrain?” and he is
worse now than before.
“I would have given him up long ago,” answers Thrain, “if he had
been in my keeping, or where can he have been?”
“In the lading,” says the earl.
“Then why did ye not seek him there?” says Thrain.
“That never came into our mind,” says the earl.
After that they sought him over all the ship, and found him not.
“Will you now hold me free?” says Thrain.
“Surely not,” says the earl, “for I know that thou hast hidden
away the man, though I find him not; but I would rather that thou
shouldst be a dastard to me than I to thee,” says the earl, and
then they went on shore.
“Now,” says the earl, “I seem to see that Thrain has hidden away
Hrapp in the sail.”
Just then, up sprung a fair breeze, and Thrain and his men sailed
out to sea. He then spoke these words which have long been held
in mind since —
“Let us make the Vulture fly,
Nothing now gars Thrain flinch.”
But when the earl heard of Thrain’s words, then he said, “‘Tis
not my want of foresight which caused this, but rather their
ill-fellowship, which will drag them both to death.”
Thrain was a short time out on the sea, and so came to Iceland,
