."
"Well," answers Gizur, "we will close with thee in this matter, though
thou alone layest down the terms."
Then all this atonement was made and hands were shaken on it, and Gunnar
said to Otkell--
"It were wiser to go away to thy kinsfolk; but if thou wilt be here in
this country, mind that thou givest me no cause of quarrel."
"That is wholesome counsel," said Gizur; "and so he shall do."
So Gunnar had the greatest honour from that suit, and afterwards men
rode home from the Thing.
Now Gunnar sits in his house at home, and so things are quiet for a
while.
CHAPTER LII.
OF RUNOLF, THE SON OF WOLF AURPRIEST.
There was a man named Runolf, the son of Wolf Aurpriest, he kept house
at the Dale, east of Markfleet. He was Otkell's guest once when he rode
from the Thing. Otkell gave him an ox, all black, without a spot of
white, nine winters old. Runolf thanked him for the gift, and bade him
come and see him at home whenever he chose to go; and this bidding
stood over for some while, so that he had not paid the visit. Runolf
often sent men to him and put him in mind that he ought to come; and he
always said he would come, but never went.
Now Otkell had two horses, dun coloured, with a black stripe down the
back; they were the best steeds to ride in all the country round, and so
fond of each other, that whenever one went before, the other ran after
him.
There was an Easterling staying with Otkell, whose name was Audulf; he
had set his heart on Signy Otkell's daughter. Audulf was a tall man in
growth, and strong.
CHAPTER LIII.
HOW OTKELL RODE OVER GUNNAR.
It happened next spring that Otkell said that they would ride east to
the Dale, to pay Runolf a visit, and all showed themselves well pleased
at that. Skamkell and his two brothers, and Audulf and three men more,
went along with Otkell. Otkell rode one of the dun horses, but the other
ran loose by his side. They shaped their course east towards Markfleet;
and now Otkell gallops ahead, and now the horses race against each
other, and they break away from the path up towards the Fleetlithe.
Now, Otkell goes faster than he wished, and it happened that Gunnar had
gone away from home out of his house all alone; and he had a corn-sieve
in one hand, but in the other a hand-axe. He goes down to his seed field
and sows his corn there, and had laid his cloak of fine stuff and his
axe down by his aide, and so he sows the corn a while.
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