A little after, a man rode up to the door and got off his horse's back and went in, and there was come the shepherd of Thorhilda and her husband.
"Didst thou find the sheep?" she asked.
"I found what might be more worth," said he.
"What was that?" asked Njal.
"I found twenty-four men up in the wood yonder; they had tethered their horses, but slept themselves. Their shields they had hung up in the boughs."
But so closely had he looked at them that he told of all their weapons and wargear and clothes, and then Njal knew plainly who each of them must have been, and said to him, "'Twere good hiring if there were many such shepherds; and this shall ever stand to thy good; but still I will send thee on an errand."
He said at once he would go.
"Thou shalt go," says Njal, "to Lithend and tell Gunnar that he must fare to Gritwater, and then send after men; but I will go to meet with those who are in the wood and scare them away. This thing hath well come to pass, so that they shall gain nothing by this journey, but lose much."
The shepherd set off and told Gunnar as plainly as he could the whole story. Then Gunnar rode to Gritwater and summoned men to him.
Now it is to be told of Njal how he rides to meet these namesakes.