"Look that your swords be loose in their sheaths."
They rode into the yard at Cragness and called Hiarandi from his house. Hiarandi came, and with him Rolf, bearing his bow, for he was about to go out for birds.
"Hiarandi," said Einar, "we have come to speak of the blood-suit for the slaying of my kinsman."
"That thy kinsman is slain I knew," answered Hiarandi, "but I see not how it affects me in any way, so long as my brother be living."
"But thy brother is dead," replied Einar, and told that Kiartan was shipwrecked in the Orkneys.
"This is the first I have heard of it," said Hiarandi.
Then Ondott spoke. "Knowing thy suspicious nature," said he, "I brought with us the men who were witnesses to the oath the messenger made. Thus canst thou know thy brother is truly dead."
Hallvard and Hallmund said they had witnessed the oath. Hiarandi answered no word, but looked from one to the other.
"Now," said Ondott, "these same men will be witnesses to what we say here together." And this he said in a manner to provoke Hiarandi, yet he still answered nothing.
"Is it not better," asked Einar, "that this matter be settled here quietly, between neighbors, rather than be brought before the judges at the Althing?"