"This will not be fated," says Kari; "but still ye do not lack heart, but we will first know whether he is there now."
After that they fared thither, and then the earl was up and away.
Then Kari sailed in to Hlada to meet the earl, and brought him the Orkney scatts, so the earl said, "Hast thou taken Njal's sons into thy keeping?"
"So it is, sure enough," says Kari.
"Wilt thou hand Njal's sons over to me?" asks the earl.
"No, I will not," said Kari.
"Wilt thou swear this," says the earl, "that thou wilt not fall on me with Njal's sons?"
Then Eric, the earl's son, spoke and said, "Such things ought not to be asked. Kari has always been our friend, and things should not have gone as they have, had I been by. Njal's sons should have been set free from all blame, but they should have had chastisement who had wrought for it. Methinks now it would be more seemly to give Njal's sons good gifts for the hardships and wrongs which have been put upon them, and the wounds they have got."
"So it ought to be, sure enough," says the earl, "but I know not whether they will take an atonement."
Then the earl said that Kari should try the feeling of Njal's sons as to an atonement.