shalt kill him."
"I can get that done," he says, "but 'tis more likely that I shall lose my own life for it."
"Everything grows big in thy eyes," she says, "and thou behavest ill to say this after I have spoken up for thee in everything. I must get another man to do this if thou darest not."
He took the axe, and was very wroth, and takes a horse that Gunnar owned, and rides now till he comes east of Markfleet. There he got off and bided in the wood, till they had carried down the firewood, and Swart was left alone behind. Then Kol sprang on him, and said, "More folk can hew great strokes than thou alone;" and so he laid the axe on his head, and smote him his death-blow, and rides home afterwards, and tells Hallgerda of the slaying.
She said, "I shall take such good care of thee, that no harm shall come to thee."
"May be so," says he, "but I dreamt all the other way as I slept ere I did the deed."
Now they come up into the wood, and find Swart slain, and bear him home. Hallgerda sent a man to Gunnar at the Thing to tell him of the slaying. Gunnar said no hard words at first of Hallgerda to the messenger, and men knew not at first whether he thought well or ill of it. A little after he stood up, and bade his men go with him: they did so, and fared to Njal's booth. Gunnar sent a man to fetch Njal, and begged him to come out. Njal went out at once, and he and Gunnar fell a-talking, and Gunnar said, "I have to tell thee of the slaying of a man, and my wife and my grieve Kol were those who did it; but Swart, thy housecarle, fell before them."
Njal held his peace while he told him the whole story. Then Njal spoke, "Thou must take heed not to let her have her way in everything."
Gunnar said, "Thou thyself shalt settle the terms."
Njal spoke again, "'Twill be hard work for thee to atone for all Hallgerda's mischief; and somewhere else there will be a broader trail to follow than this which we two now have a share in, and yet, even here there will be much awanting before all be well; and herein we shall need to bear in mind the friendly words that passed between us of old; and something tells me that thou wilt come well out of it, but still thou wilt be sore tried."
Then Njal took the award into his own hands from Gunnar, and said, "I will not push this matter to the uttermost; thou shalt pay twelve ounces of silver; but I will add this to my award, that if anything happens from our homestead about which thou hast to utter an award, thou wilt not be less easy in thy terms."
Gunnar paid up the money out of hand, and rode home afterwards. Njal, too, came home from the Thing, and his sons. Bergthora saw the money, and said, "This is very justly settled; but even as much money shall be paid for Kol as time goes on."
Gunnar came home from the Thing and blamed Hallgerda. She said, better men lay unatoned in many places. Gunnar said, she might have her way in beginning a quarrel, "but how the matter is to be settled rests with me."
Hallgerda was for ever chattering of Swart's slaying, but Bergthora liked that ill. Once Njal and her sons went up to Thorolfsfell to see about the house-keeping there, but that selfsame day this thing happened when Bergthora was out of doors: she sees a man ride up to the house on a black horse. She stayed there and did not go in, for she did not know the man. That man had a spear in his hand, and was girded with a short sword. She asked this man his name.
"Atli is my name," says he.
She asked whence he came.
"I am an Eastfirther," he says.
"Whither shalt thou go?" she says.
"I am a homeless man," says he, "and I thought to see Njal and
Skarphedinn, and know if they would take me in."
"What work is handiest to thee?" says she.
"I am a man used to field-work," he says, "and many things else come very handy to me; but I will not hide from thee that I am a man of hard temper, and it has been many a man's lot before now to bind up wounds at my hand."
"I do not blame thee," she says, "though thou art no milksop."
Atli said, "Hast thou any voice in things here?"
"I am Njal's wife," she says, "and I have as much to say to our housefolk as he."
"Wilt thou take me in then?" says he.
"I will give thee thy choice of that," says she. "If thou wilt do all the work that I set before thee, and that, though I wish to send thee where a man's life is at stake."
"Thou must have so many men at thy beck," says he, "that thou wilt not need me for such work."
"That I will settle as I please," she says.
"We will strike a bargain on these terms," says he.
Then she took him into the household. Njal and his sons came home and asked Bergthora what man that might be?
"He is thy house-carle," she says, "and I took him in." Then she went on to say he was no sluggard at work.
"He will be a great worker enough, I daresay," says Njal, "but I do not know whether he will be such a good worker."
Skarphedinn was good to Atli.
Njal and his sons ride to the Thing in the course of the summer;
Gunnar was also at the Thing.
Njal took out a purse of money.
"What money is that, father?"
"Here is the money that Gunnar paid me for our housecarle last summer."
"That will come to stand thee in some stead," says Skarphedinn, and smiled as he spoke.
37. THE SLAYING OF KOL, WHOM ATLI SLEW
Now we must take up the story and say, that Atli asked Bergthora what work he should do that day?
"I have thought of some work for thee," she says; "thou shalt go and look for Kol until thou find him; for now shalt thou slay him this very day, if thou wilt do my will."
"This work is well fitted," says Atli, "for each of us two are bad fellows; but still I will so lay myself out for him that one or other of us shall die."
"Well mayst thou fare," she says, "and thou shalt not do this deed for nothing."
He took his weapons and his horse, and rode up to Fleetlithe, and there met men who were coming down from Lithend. They were at home east in the Mark. They asked Atli whither he meant to go? He said he was riding to look for an old jade. They said that was a small errand for such a workman, "but still 'twould be better to ask those who have been about last night."
"Who are they?" says he.
"Killing-Kol," say they, "Hallgerda's house-carle, fared from the fold just now, and has been awake all night."
"I do not know whether I dare to meet him," says Atli, "he is bad-tempered, and may be that I shall let another's wound be my warning."
"Thou bearest that look beneath the brows as though thou wert no coward," they said, and showed him where Kol was.
Then he spurred his horse and rides fast, and when he meets Kol,
Atli
