And now it was quenched ... quenched for ever.
Helga sat down, looking alternately at the grave and the burnt patch. Now and then her eyes filled with tears. But she could weep no more.
Later in the evening Hallveig came silently and sat down by her side. They did not speak. Hallveig wept now and then. Helga sat motionless, gazing before her with eyes that scorched and burned, but seeing nothing.
The two women remained sitting there the whole night. When sunrise streaked the horizon next day they rose quietly and went silently homeward to the houses.
XII
Ingolf sent his men to search for the Irish serfs.
As the boats were gone, there was reason to suppose that they had sought flight by sea. And as they knew Ingolf was in the east, it was likely they had rowed farther westward along the coast.
Ingolf's men searched the coast westward for many days' journey. They saw nothing of the serfs anywhere—not even a sign that they had landed. And even if they had been drowned, their bodies must have been cast ashore. Neither did they find the pillars of Ingolf's high-seat, which they were also looking for.
When they returned home and told Ingolf that they had neither found the serfs nor the pillars, he said in his quiet way: "The pillars shall be found and the serfs too, if I have to search the whole country." Ingolf sent Vifel with fifteen men in a boat out to the islands, which from the mountains near the point were visible in the south-west.