y got them horses at once, but left other men to strip their ship.
Then they ride with thirty men to the Thing, and sent word to the
Christian men that they must be ready to stand by them.

Hjallti stayed behind at Reydarmull, for he had heard that he had been
made an outlaw for blasphemy, but when they came to the "Boiling
Kettle"[62] down below the brink of the Rift,[63] there came Hjallti
after them, and said he would not let the heathen men see that he was
afraid of them.

Then many Christian men rode to meet them, and they ride in battle
array to the Thing. The heathen men had drawn up their men in array to
meet them, and it was a near thing that the whole body of the Thing had
come to blows, but still it did not go so far.

CHAPTER CI.

OF THORGEIR OF LIGHTWATER.

There was a man named Thorgeir who dwelt at Lightwater; he was the son
of Tjorfi, the son of Thorkel the long, the son of Kettle Longneck. His
mother's name was Thoruna, and she was the daughter of Thorstein, the
son of Sigmund, the son of Bard of the Nip. Gudrida was the name of his
wife; she was a daughter of Thorkel the black of Hleidrargarth. His
brother was Worm wallet-back, the father of Hlenni the old of Saurby.

The Christian men set up their booths, and Gizur the white and Hjallti
were in the booths of the men from Mossfell. The day after both sides
went to the Hill of Laws, and each, the Christian men as well as the
heathen, took witness, and declared themselves out of the other's laws,
and then there was such an uproar on the Hill of Laws that no man could
hear the other's voice.

After that men went away, and all thought things looked like the
greatest entanglement. The Christian men chose as their Speaker Hall of
the Side, but Hall went to Thorgeir, the priest of Lightwater, who was
the old Speaker of the law, and gave him three marks of silver to utter
what the law should be, but still that was most hazardous counsel, since
he was an heathen.

Thorgeir lay all that day on the ground, and spread a cloak over his
head, so that no man spoke with him; but the day after men went to the
Hill of Laws, and then Thorgeir bade them be silent and listen, and
spoke thus--

"It seems to me as though our matters were come to a dead lock, if we
are not all to have one and the same law; for if there be a sundering of
the laws, then there will be a sundering of the peace, and we shall
never be able to live in the land. Now, I will ask bot