e
and learned; and grieved for me he was when he heard of my mother's
death. Many things he said to me at that time which made him dearer
to me. Then after a while he spoke of Harald, who, as it seemed,
might come at any time.

"We cannot fight Norway," he said, "so we must even flit hence to
the mainland and wait until Harald is tired of seeking us. It is in
my mind that he seeks not so much for revenge as for payment of
scatt from our islands. Now he has a reason for taking it by force.
He will seek to fine us, and then make plans by which I shall hold
the jarldom from him for yearly dues."

So he straightway called the Thing {ii} of all the Orkney folk,
who loved him well, and put the matter before them; and they set to
work and did his bidding, driving the cattle inland and scattering
them, and making the town look as poor as they might.

Then in three days' time we sailed away laughing; for none but
poor-looking traders were left, and no man would think that never
had the Orkneys been so rich as in Einar's time. And he bade them
make peace with the king when he came, and told them that so all
would be well, for Harald would lay no heavy weregild on so poor a
place for his son's slaying.

Southward we went to Caithness, and so westward along the
Sutherland coast; for we had taken no scatt there for this year,
and Einar would use this cruise to do so, seeing that we must put
to sea. We were not the first who had laid these shores under rule
from the Orkneys, for Jarl Sigurd had conquered them, meeting his
death at last in a Sutherland firth, after victory, in a strange
way.

He fought with a Scottish chief named Melbrigda of the Tusks, and
slew him, and bore back his head to the ships at his saddle bow.
Then the great teeth of the chief swung against the jarl's leg and
wounded it, and of that he died, and so was laid in a great mound
at the head of the firth where his ships lay. After that, the
Orkneys were a nest of evil vikings till we came.

So it had happened that, from the time when it was made over him,
Jarl Sigurd's mound had been untended, for we ourselves had never
been so far south as this firth before. Indeed, it had been so laid
waste by Sigurd's men after his death that there was nought to go
there for. But at this time we had reason for getting into some
quiet, unsought place where we should not be likely to be heard of,
for the king had over-many ships and men for us to meet. So after a
week'