Thord liked the plot well, he rode home therewith and held his peace about this; but now things went according to the saw, a listening ear in the holt is anear; men had been by at the talk betwixt Thord and Gisli, who were friends to Biorn of Hitdale, and they told him all from end to end; so when Biorn and Grettir met, Biorn showed forth the whole matter to him, and said that now he might prove how he could meet a foe.

“It would not be bad sport,” said he, “if thou wert to handle him roughly, but to slay him not, if thou mightest do otherwise.”

Grettir smiled thereat, but spake little.

Now at the folding time in the autumn Grettir went down to Flysia-wharf and got sheep for himself; he had laid hold on four wethers; but the bonders became ware of his ways and went after him; and these two things befell at the same time, that he got up under the fell-side, and that they came upon him, and would drive the sheep from him, yet bare they no weapon against him; they were six altogether, and stood thick in his path.  Now the sheep troubled him and he waxed wroth, and caught up two of those men, and cast them down over the hill-side, so that they lay stunned; and when the others saw that, they came on less eagerly; then Grettir took up the sheep and locked them together by the horns, and threw them over his shoulders, two on each side, and went up into his lair.

So the bonders turned back, and deemed they had got but ill from him, and their lot misliked them now worse than before.

Now Gisli abode at his ship through the autumn till it was rolled ashore.  Many things made him abide there, so he was ready late, and rode away but a little before winter-nights.  Then he went from the south, and guested under Raun on the south side of Hitriver.  In the morning, before he rode thence, he began a talk with his fellows: 

“Now shall we ride in coloured clothes to-day, and let the outlaw see that we are not like other wayfarers who are drifted about here day by day.”

So this they did, and they were three in all:  but when they came west over the river, he spake again to them: 

“Here in these bents, I am told, lurks the outlaw, and no easy way is there up to him; but may it not perchance seem good to him to come and meet us and behold our array?”

They said that it was ever his wont so to do.  Now that morning Grettir had risen early in his lair; the weather was cold and frosty, and snow had fallen, but not much of it.  He saw how three men rode from the south over Hitriver, and their state raiment glittered and their inlaid shields.  Then it came into his mind who these should be, and he deems it would be good for him to get some rag of their array; and he was right wishful withal to meet such braggarts:  so he catches up his weapons and runs down the slip-side.  And when Gisli heard the clatter of the stones, he spake thus: 

“There goes a man down the hill-side, and somewhat big he is, and he is coming to meet us:  now, therefore, let us go against him briskly, for here is good getting come to hand.”