Now comes the Earl, just as they were done stowing Hrapp away. Thrain greeted the Earl well. The Earl was rather slow to return it, and they saw that the Earl was very wroth.
Then said the Earl to Thrain—
"Give thou up Hrapp, for I am quite sure that thou hast hidden him."
"Where shall I have hidden him, Lord?" says Thrain.
"That thou knowest best," says the Earl; "but if I must guess, then I think that thou hiddest him in the water-casks a while ago."
"Well!" says Thrain, "I would rather not be taken for a liar, far sooner would I that ye should search the ship."
Then the Earl went on board the ship and hunted and hunted, but found him not.
"Dost thou speak me free now?" says Thrain. "Far from it," says the Earl, "and yet I cannot tell why we cannot find him, but methinks I see through it all when I come on shore, but when I come here, I can see nothing."
With that he made them row him ashore. He was so wroth that there was no speaking to him. His son Sweyn was there with him, and he said, "A strange turn of mind this to let guiltless men smart for one's wrath!"
Then the Earl went away alone aside from other men, and after that he went back to them at once, and said—