ld me, that ye have no counsel that avails to
rid you of a certain outlaw who is doing you great ill?"

Thord said, "We have not tried aught on him yet, but to many he seems
a man hard to deal with, and that has been proven on many a man."

"It is like, methinks, that you should find Biorn a heavy trouble, if
ye may not drive away this man: luckless it is for you withal, that I
shall be too far off this winter to better matters for you."

"Thou wilt be better pleased to deal with him by hearsay."

"Nay, no need to tell me of Grettir," said Gisli; "I have borne harder
brunts when I was in warfare along with King Knut the Mighty, and west
over the Sea, and I was ever thought to hold my own; and if I should
have a chance at him I would trust myself and my weapons well enough."

Thord said he would not work for nought if he prevailed against
Grettir; "For there is more put upon his head than on the head of any
other of wood-folk; six marks of silver it was; but last summer Thorir
of Garth laid thereto yet three marks; and men deem he will have
enough to do therefor whose lot it is to win it."

"All things soever will men do for money," says Gisli, "and we chapmen
not the least; but now shall we keep this talk hushed up, for mayhap
he will be the warier," says he, "if he come to know that I am with
you against him: now I am minded to abide this winter at Snowfellsness
at Wave-ridge. Is his lair on my way at all? for he will not foresee
this, nor shall I draw together many men against him."

Thord liked the plot well, he rode home therewith and held his peace
about this; but now things went according to the saw, <i>a listening
ear in the holt is anear</i>; men had been by at the talk betwixt
Thord and Gisli, who were friends to Biorn of Hitdale, and they told
him all from end to end; so when Biorn and Grettir met, Biorn showed
forth the whole matter to him, and said that now he might prove how he
could meet a foe.

"It would not be bad sport," said he, "if thou wert to handle him
roughly, but to slay him not, if thou mightest do otherwise."

Grettir smiled thereat, but spake little.

Now at the folding time in the autumn Grettir went down to
Flysia-wharf and got sheep for himself; he had laid hold on four
wethers; but the bonders became ware of his ways and went after him;
and these two things befell at the same time, that he got up under the
fell-side, and that they came upon him, and would drive the sheep from
hi