CHAPTER VIII. OF BIARGEY AND HER BRETHREN.

ON a day in summer as they rowed out to sea they saw a craft coming east up the firth, and they knew that it was Thorbiorn and his homemen. Then spake Biargey : " Now shall we take up our lines, and row to meet Thorbiorn, for I would see him : thou shalt row towards the cutter's beam, and I will talk with him a little, whiles thou rawest about the craft/' They did so and rowed toward the cutter : Biargey cast a word at Thorbiorn, hailing him, and asking him whither he would : he said he was going west to Vadil : " Thither is come out Sturla my brother, and Thiodrek his son, and I shall flit them down hither to

me."

"How long wilt thou be gone, master?" said she.

" Nigh upon a week," said Thorbiorn.

Thorhall had by now rowed all about the cutter, and so when she had what she wanted they bent to their oars, and rowed off all they might. Then cried Thorbiorn : " To the devil with the wretched

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hag 1 let us straightway row after them, and slay him and maim hen"

Then spake Brand : " Lo here again the truth of what men say of thee, that thou wilt never spare to do all the ill thou mayest : but I shall help them with all my might ; so thou wilt have a dear bargain of it." So, what with Brand's words, what with their having by now gotten far away, Thorbiorn kept quiet and went his ways.

Now spake Biargey : " As little as it seemeth likely, I deem that there will be an avenging for Olaf my son ; now will we not go straight home."

" Whither away ? " said Thorhall.

" We will go see Valbrand my brother/' said she. Now he dwelt at Valbrandstead, a very old man in these days, but once of great renown : two sons he had, exceeding hopeful, but young in years, Torfi and Eyjulf to wit.

So they make no stay till they came there : Valbrand was abroad in the home-mead and many men with him ; he went to meet his sister, and greeted her, and prayed her to abide ; but she said : "It may not be, I must be home to-night"

" What wilt thou, sister ? " said he.

She said: U I will that thou lend me thy sealnets."

" Here be three/' he said : " one old and grown untrustworthy now, though once it was strong enow, and two new and unproven : which wilt thou, two or three ? "

She said : " The new ones will I have, but I will not risk taking the old : get them ready against I send for them."

Howard the Half. 29

He said that so it should be, and therewith they went away.

Then said Thorhall : " Whither now ?" She answered : " We will go see Thorbrand my brother.'* He dwelt at Thorbrandstead and was now very old : he had two sons, young and hopeful, hight Odd and Thorir*

So when they came thither Thorbrand gave them good greeting and bade them abide : she said it might not be.

" What wilt thou then, sister ? " said he.

Quoth she : " I would have the loan of thy troutnets."

He answered : " Here have I three, one very old, and two new that have not been used : which wilt thou, two or three ? "

She said she would have but those new ones, and they parted therewith. Then they go their ways, and Thorhall asked : " Whither now ? "

" Let us go see master Asbrand, my brother," said she. He dwelt at Asbrandstead, and was the eldest of those brethren, and had wedded a sister of master Howard : he had a son named Hallgrim, young of years, but both big and strong; ill-favoured, but most manlike to behold. So when Biargey came there, Asbrand greeted her, and bade her abide, but she said she must home that evening. " What wilt thou," said he, " so seldom as thou comest to see thy kin ? "

" A little errand," said she ; " we be unfurnished of turf-tools, so I would that thou lend me thy turf-axe."

He answered, smiling : " Here be two, one exceeding rusty, old and notched, and now deemed fit for

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nought ; but the other new and big, though unused as yet"

She said she would have the new one when she came to fetch it : he answered that she should have her way : and so they fare home to Howardstead in the evening.