He fares till he comes to Lithend; then he misses the knife, but dares not to go back.
Now he brings Hallgerda the food, and she showed herself well pleased at it.
Next morning when men came out of doors at Kirkby there they saw great scathe. Then a man was sent to the Thing to tell Otkell, he bore the loss well, and said it must have happened because the kitchen was next to the storehouse; and all thought that that was how it happened.
Now men ride home from the Thing, and many rode to Lithend. Hallgerda set food on the hoard, and in came cheese and butter. Gunnar knew that such food was not to be looked for in his house, and asked Hallgerda whence it came?
"Thence," she says, "whence thou mightest well eat of it; besides, it is no man's business to trouble himself with housekeeping."
Gunnar got wroth and said, "Ill indeed is it if I am a partaker with thieves"; and with that he gave her a slap on the cheek.
She said she would bear that slap in mind and repay it if she could.
So she went off and he went with her, and then all that was on the board was cleared away, but flesh-meat was brought in instead, and all thought that was because the flesh was thought to have been got in a better way.
Now the men who had been at the Thing fare away.