So they went on, till Hrut, in answer told him how the suit must be taken up, and recited the summons.  Hedinn repeated it all wrong, and Hrut burst out laughing, and had no mistrust.  Then he said, Hrut must summon once more, and Hrut did so.  Then Hedinn repeated the summons a second time, and this time right, and called his companions to witness how he summoned Hrut in a suit which Unna Mord’s daughter had made over to him with her plighted hand.  At night he went to sleep like other men, but as soon as ever Hrut was sound asleep, they took their clothes and arms, and went out and came to their horses, and rode off across the river, and so up along the bank by Hiardarholt till the dale broke off among the hills, and so there they are upon the fells between Laxriverdale and Hawkdale, having got to a spot where no one could find them unless he had fallen on them by chance.

Hauskuld wakes up that night at Hauskuldstede, and roused all his household, “I will tell you my dream,” he said.  “I thought I saw a great bear go out of this house, and I knew at once this beast’s match was not to be found; two cubs followed him, wishing well to the bear, and they all made for Hrutstede, and went into the house there.  After that I woke.  Now I wish to ask if any of you saw aught about yon tall man.”

Then one man answered him—­“I saw how a golden fringe and a bit of scarlet cloth peeped out at his arm, and on his right arm he had a ring of gold”.

Hauskuld said—­“This beast is no man’s fetch, but Gunnar’s of Lithend, and now methinks I see all about it.  Up! let us ride to Hrutstede.”  And they did so.  Hrut lay in his locked bed, and asks who have come there?  Hauskuld tells who he is, and asked what guests might be there in the house.

“Only Huckster Hedinn is here,” says Hrut.

“A broader man across the back, it will be, I fear,” says Hauskuld, “I guess here must have been Gunnar of Lithend.”

“Then there has been a pretty trial of cunning,” says Hrut.

“What has happened?” says Hauskuld.

“I told him how to take up Unna’s suit, and I summoned myself and he summoned after, and now he can use this first step in the suit, and it is right in law.”

“There has, indeed, been a great falling off of wit on one side,” said Hauskuld, “and Gunnar cannot have planned it all by himself; Njal must be at the bottom of this plot, for there is not his match for wit in all the land.”

Now they look for Hedinn, but he is already off and away; after that they gathered folk, and looked for them three days, but could not find them.  Gunnar rode south from the fell to Hawkdale and so east of Skard, and north to Holtbeaconheath, and so on until he got home.

CHAPTER XXIV.

GUNNAR AND HRUT STRIVE AT THE THING.

Gunnar rode to the Althing, and Hrut and Hauskuld rode thither too with a very great company.  Gunnar pursues his suit, and began by calling on his neighbours to bear witness, but Hrut and his brother had it in their minds to make an onslaught on him, but they mistrusted their strength.