uit, and I summoned myself and he
summoned after, and now he can use this first step in the suit, and it
is right in law."

"There has, indeed, been a great falling off of wit on one side," said
Hauskuld, "and Gunnar cannot have planned it all by himself; Njal must
be at the bottom of this plot, for there is not his match for wit in all
the land."

Now they look for Hedinn, but he is already off and away; after that
they gathered folk, and looked for them three days, but could not find
them. Gunnar rode south from the fell to Hawkdale and so east of Skard,
and north to Holtbeaconheath, and so on until he got home.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GUNNAR AND HRUT STRIVE AT THE THING.

Gunnar rode to the Althing, and Hrut and Hauskuld rode thither too with
a very great company. Gunnar pursues his suit, and began by calling on
his neighbours to bear witness, but Hrut and his brother had it in their
minds to make an onslaught on him, but they mistrusted their strength.

Gunnar next went to the court of the men of Broadfirth, and bade Hrut
listen to his oath and declaration of the cause of the suit, and to all
the proofs which he was about to bring forward. After that he took his
oath, and declared his case. After that he brought forward his witnesses
of the summons, along with his witnesses that the suit had been handed
over to him. All this time Njal was not at the court. Now Gunnar pursued
his suit till he called on the defendant to reply. Then Hrut took
witness, and said the suit was naught, and that there was a flaw in the
pleading; he declared that it had broken down because Gunnar had failed
to call those three witnesses which ought to have been brought before
the court. The first, that which was taken before the marriage-bed, the
second, before the man's door, the third, at the Hill of Laws. By this
time Njal was come to the court and said the suit and pleading might
still he kept alive if they chose to strive in that way.

"No," says Gunnar, "I will not have that; I will do the same to Hrut as
he did to Mord my kinsman;--or, are those brothers Hrut and Hauskuld so
near that they may hear my voice?"

"Hear it we can," says Hrut. "What dost thou wish?"

Gunnar said--"Now all men here present be ear-witnesses, that I
challenge thee Hrut to single combat, and we shall fight to-day on the
holm, which is here in Axewater. But if thou wilt not fight with me,
then pay up all the money this very day."

After that Gunnar s