no mind to bandy words with her, and went away. He
met Kolskegg, and said to him, "Go and see Njal; and tell him that Thord
must beware of himself though peace has been made, for, methinks, there
is faithlessness somewhere".

He rode off and told Njal, but Njal told Thord, and Kolskegg rode home,
and Njal thanked them for their faithfulness.

Once on a time they two were out in the "town," Njal and Thord; a
he-goat was wont to go up and down in the "town," and no one was allowed
to drive him away. Then Thord spoke and said--

"Well, this _is_ a wondrous thing!"

"What is it that thou see'st that seems after a wondrous fashion?" says
Njal.

"Methinks the goat lies here in the hollow, and he is all one gore of
blood."

Njal said that there was no goat there, nor anything else.

"What is it then?" says Thord.

"Thou must be a 'fey' man," says Njal, "and thou must have seen the
fetch that follows thee, and now be ware of thyself."

"That will stand me in no stead," says Thord, "if death is doomed for
me."

Then Hallgerda came to talk with Thrain Sigfus' son, and said--"I would
think thee my son-in-law indeed," she says, "if thou slayest Thord
Freedmanson".

"I will not do that," he says, "for then I shall have the wrath of my
kinsman Gunnar; and besides, great things hang on this deed, for this
slaying would soon be avenged."

"Who will avenge it?" she asks; "is it the beardless carle?"

"Not so," says he; "his sons will avenge it."

After that they talked long and low, and no man knew what counsel they
took together.

Once it happened that Gunnar was not at home, but those companions were.
Thrain had come in from Gritwater, and then he and they and Hallgerda
sat out of doors and talked. Then Hallgerda said--

"This have ye two brothers in arms, Sigmund and Skiolld, promised to
slay Thord Freedmanson; but Thrain thou hast promised me that thou
wouldst stand by them when they did the deed."

They all acknowledged that they had given her this promise.

"Now I will counsel you how to do it," she says: "Ye shall ride east
into Hornfirth after your goods, and come home about the beginning of
the Thing, but if ye are at home before it begins, Gunnar will wish that
ye should ride to the Thing with him. Njal will be at the Thing and his
sons and Gunnar, but then ye two shall slay Thord."

They all agreed that this plan should be carried out. After that they
busked them east to the Firth, and Gunnar was not