Then there was great joy there, and men thought Thorgeir had grown much greater, and pushed himself on; both he and Kari too.  Men long kept in mind this hunting of theirs, how they two rode upon fifteen men and slew those five, but put those ten to flight who got away.

Now it is to be told of Kettle, that they rode as they best might till they came home to Swinefell, and told how bad their journey had been.

Flosi said it was only what was to be looked for; “and this is a warning that ye should never do the like again”.

Flosi was the merriest of men, and the best of hosts, and it is so said that he had most of the chieftain in him of all the men of his time.

He was at home that summer, and the winter too.

But that winter, after Yule, Hall of the Side came from the east, and Kol his son.  Flosi was glad at his coming, and they often talked about the matter of the Burning.  Flosi said they had already paid a great fine, and Hall said it was pretty much what he had guessed would come of Flosi’s and his friends’ quarrel.  Then he asked him what counsel he thought best to be taken, and Hall answers—­

“The counsel I give is, that thou beest atoned with Thorgeir if there be a choice, and yet he will be hard to bring to take any atonement.”

“Thinkest thou that the manslaughters will then be brought to an end?” asks Flosi.

“I do not think so,” says Hall; “but you will have to do with fewer foes if Kari be left alone; but if thou art not atoned with Thorgeir, then that will be thy bane.”

“What atonement shall we offer him?” asks Flosi.

“You will all think that atonement hard,” says Hall, “which he will take, for he will not hear of an atonement unless he be not called on to pay any fine for what he has just done, but he will have fines for Njal and his sons, so far as his third share goes.”

“That is a hard atonement,” says Flosi.

“For thee at least,” says Hall, “that atonement is not hard, for thou hast not the blood-feud after the sons of Sigfus; their brothers have the blood-feud, and Hamond the halt after his son; but thou shalt now get an atonement from Thorgeir, for I will now ride to his house with thee, and Thorgeir will in anywise receive me well; but no man of those who are in this quarrel will dare to sit in his house on Fleetlithe if they are out of the atonement, for that will be their bane; and, indeed, with Thorgeir’s turn of mind, it is only what must be looked for.”

Now the sons of Sigfus were sent for, and they brought this business before them; and the end of their speech was, on the persuasion of Hall, that they all thought what he said right, and were ready to be atoned.

Grani Gunnar’s son and Gunnar Lambi’s son said—­

“It will be in our power, if Kari be left alone behind, to take care that he be not less afraid of us than we of him.”

“Easier said than done,” says Hall, “and ye will find it a dear bargain to deal with him.  Ye will have to pay a heavy fine before you have done with him.”