Now Flosi speaks to his men, "Now we will ride to Bergthorsknoll, and come thither before supper-time."
They do so. There was a dell in the knoll, and they rode thither, and tethered their horses there, and stayed there till the evening was far spent.
Then Flosi said, "Now we will go straight up to the house, and keep close, and walk slow, and see what counsel they will take."
Njal stood out of doors, and his sons, and Kari and all the serving-men, and they stood in array to meet them in the yard, and they were near thirty of them.
Flosi halted and said, "Now we shall see what counsel they take, for it seems to me, if they stand out of doors to meet us, as though we should never get the mastery over them."
"Then is our journey bad," says Grani Gunnar's son, "if we are not to dare to fall on them."
"Nor shall that be," says Flosi; "for we will fall on them though they stand out of doors; but we shall pay that penalty, that many will not go away to tell which side won the day."
Njal said to his men, "See ye now what a great band of men they have."
"They have both a great and well-knit band," says Skarphedinn; "but this is why they make a halt now, because they think it will be a hard struggle to master us."
"That cannot be why they halt," says Njal; "and my will is that our men go indoors, for they had hard work to master Gunnar of Lithend, though he was alone to meet them; but here is a strong house as there was there, and they will be slow to come to close quarters."