he would
never return to it. Then he threw his arms round every man, and without
looking back sprang into the saddle.

As they rode along the Mark fleet, his horse stumbled, and Gunnar fell
to the ground. When he got up he did not mount at once, but stood and
looked round him for a while. Suddenly he turned and said to Kolskegg:
'Never has my home seemed to me so fair as now when the corn is ripe and
ready for cutting. Come what may, I will not leave it.'

'Do not let your foes triumph over you,' answered Kolskegg. 'For if you
should break your atonement, any man may deal with you as he will.'

'I will go no whither,' repeated Gunnar, 'and I would that you would stay
with me.'

'I cannot do this thing,' answered Kolskegg; 'but if you go back, tell
my mother and my kindred that I bid them farewell for ever, for you will
soon be dead, and I shall have naught to bind me to Iceland.'

Hallgerda's heart was filled with joy when Gunnar came under the
doorway, but Rannveig said nothing, for her heart was sad.

All that winter Gunnar sat fast at Lithend and would not be prevailed on
to leave it, and when the winter had gone and the Thing had met, Gizur
the white proclaimed Gunnar an outlaw for having broken his atonement.
Then he called together all his foes, and they planned together how that
they should ride to Lithend and slay him. But Njal heard what they had
been saying, and he warned Gunnar.

'You have always dealt truly and kindly with me,' said Gunnar, when Njal
had finished speaking, 'and if ill befall me, take heed, I pray you, of
my son and Hogni. As for Grani, he has an evil nature, and there is no
turning him from bad deeds.'

It was in the autumn that Mord, the son of Valgard, sent word to
Gunnar's foes that the time had come to make the attack upon Lithend, as
all his men had gone to the haymaking on the isles of the sea. So they
set forth secretly, but stopped first at the farm nearest to Lithend,
where they seized the farmer, and warned him that unless he came with
them and put to death the hound Sam which had guarded Gunnar ever since
Olaf the Peacock had bestowed him as a gift, his own life should be
forfeit. Thorkell the farmer was sore at heart when he heard what was
required of him, but he took his axe and went with the rest. It was easy
to entice Sam the hound into a hollow dell; but when he saw the crowd of
men behind Thorkell he knew that evil was afoot, and sprang on Thorkell
and tore open his