that he would turn out
the best lawyer in Iceland when ever it were put to the proof."

Then a man was sent to Thorhall to tell him how things stood, and of
Flosi's and Eyjolf's boasting, and the cry of the people that the suit
for the Burning was quashed in Mord's bands.

"It will be well for them," says Thorhall, "if they get not disgrace
from this. Thou shalt go and tell Mord to take witness, and swear an
oath, that the greater part of the inquest is rightly summoned, and then
he shall bring that witness before the court, and then he may set the
prosecution on its feet again; but he will have to pay a fine of three
marks for every man that he has wrongly summoned; but he may not be
prosecuted for that at this Thing; and now thou shalt go back."

He does so, and told Mord and Asgrim all, word for word, that Thorhall
had said.

Then Mord went to the court, and took witness, and swore an oath that
the greater part of the inquest was rightly summoned, and said then that
he had set the prosecution on its feet again, and then he went on, "and
so our foes shall have honour from something else than from this, that
we have here taken a great false step".

Then there was a great roar that Mord handled the suit well; but it was
said that Flosi and his men betook them only to quibbling and wrong.

Flosi asked Eyjolf if this could be good law, but he said he could not
surely tell, but said the Lawman must settle this knotty point.

Then Thorkel Geiti's son went on their behalf to tell the Lawman how
things stood, and asked whether this were good law that Mord had said.

"More men are great lawyers now," says Skapti, "than I thought I must
tell thee, then, that this is such good law in all points, that there is
not a word to say against it; but still I thought that I alone would
know this, now that Njal was dead, for he was the only man I ever knew
who knew it."

Then Thorkel went back to Flosi and Eyjolf, and said that this was good
law.

Then Mord Valgard's son went to the court and took witness. "I take
witness to this," he said, "that I bid those neighbours on the inquest
in the suit which I set on foot against Flosi Thord's son now to utter
their finding, and to find it either against him or for him; I bid them
by a lawful bidding before the court, so that the judges may bear it
across the court."

Then the neighbours on Mord's inquest went to the court, and one uttered
their finding, but all confirmed it by thei