beam had fallen.

'The smoke is thick here,' said Kari, 'thick enough to hide a man; let
us leap out one by one, and we shall be away before they have seen us.
Skarphedinn, you jump first!'

[Illustration: HOW KARI ESCAPED FROM NJAL'S HOUSE]

'No!' answered Skarphedinn, 'you go first and I will follow; or, if I
follow not, you will avenge me.'

'I have a chance of my life,' said Kari, 'and I will take it. We must
each do as seems best to him, but I fear me that we see each other no
more;' and catching up a huge blazing beam, he threw it over the edge of
the roof, among the men who were gathered below.

They scattered at once like leaves in a storm, and at that instant Kari,
with his tunic and hair already burning, leaped from the roof and crept
away in the smoke. The man who stood nearest on the ground thought he
saw something dark moving, and he asked his neighbour:

'Think you that was one of them jumping from the beam?' but the man
answered: 'Nay, but it may have been Skarphedinn hurling a firebrand;'
and then they went to their own work, and paid no more heed to the
figure on the roof.

So Kari was left free to escape, and he put out the fire that was
burning him, and rested in a safe place till he could seek shelter with
his friends.

Thrice Skarphedinn tried to leap after Kari, and thrice the beam broke
under his weight, and he was forced to climb back again. Then part of
the wall fell in, and Skarphedinn fell down with it on to the floor of
the hall.

In a moment the face of Gunnar, son of Lambi, was seen on top of the
wall, and he cried out, 'Are those tears on your cheeks, Skarphedinn?'
and Skarphedinn made answer:

'Now am I finding out in truth how smoke can force tears from one's
eyes. But methinks I see laughter in yours, Gunnar.'

'Of a surety,' said Gunnar, 'never have I laughed so much since the day
you slew Thrain in Markfleet.'

'Here is a remembrance of that day for you,' said Skarphedinn, and he
took from his pouch Thrain's tooth, and flung it at Gunnar. And it
knocked out Gunnar's eye, and he fell from the roof.

Then Skarphedinn went to Grim, and hand in hand they two tried to stamp
out the burning beams, but before they had crossed the hall Grim dropped
dead, and the roof fell in, and shut Skarphedinn in a corner, so that he
could not move.

At daylight a man rode up who had met Kari, and had learned from him
that when he had jumped from the roof both Skarphedinn and Grim were
s