well as the horses tied up, and misdoubted that those who went on the sly in this manner would be no men of peace.  So forthwith he makes for the dairy by the straightest cut in order to tell Bolli that men were come there.  Halldor was a man of keen sight.  He saw how that a man was running down the mountain side and making for the dairy.  He said to his companions that “That must surely be Bolli’s shepherd, and he must have seen our coming; so we must go and meet him, and let him take no news to the dairy.”  They did as he bade them. [Sidenote:  Bolli prepares to meet them] An Brushwood-belly went the fastest of them and overtook the man, picked him up, and flung him down.  Such was that fall that the lad’s back-bone was broken.  After that they rode to the dairy.  Now the dairy was divided into two parts, the sleeping-room and the byre.  Bolli had been early afoot in the morning ordering the men to their work, and had lain down again to sleep when the house-carles went away.  In the dairy therefore there were left the two, Gudrun and Bolli.  They awoke with the din when they got off their horses, and they also heard them talking as to who should first go on to the dairy to set on Bolli.  Bolli knew the voice of Halldor, as well as that of sundry more of his followers.  Bolli spoke to Gudrun, and bade her leave the dairy and go away, and said that their meeting would not be such as would afford her much pastime.  Gudrun said she thought such things alone would befall there worthy of tidings as she might be allowed to look upon, and held that she would be of no hurt to Bolli by taking her stand near to him.  Bolli said that in this matter he would have his way, and so it was that Gudrun went out of the dairy; she went down over the brink to a brook that ran there, and began to wash some linen.  Bolli was now alone in the dairy; he took his weapon, set his helm on his head, held a shield before him, and had his sword, Footbiter, in his hand:  he had no mail coat.  Halldor and his followers were talking to each other outside as to how they should set to work, for no one was very eager to go into the dairy.  Then said An Brushwood-belly, “There are men here in this train nearer in kinship to Kjartan than I am, but not one there will be in whose mind abides more steadfastly than in mine the event when Kjartan lost his life.  When I was being brought more dead than alive home to Tongue, and Kjartan lay slain, my one thought was that I would gladly do Bolli some harm whenever I should get the chance. [Sidenote:  Bolli is wounded] So I shall be the first to go into the dairy.”  Then Thorstein the Black answered, “Most valiantly is that spoken; but it would be wiser not to plunge headlong beyond heed, so let us go warily now, for Bolli will not be standing quiet when he is beset; and however underhanded he may be where he is, you may make up your mind for a brisk defence on his part, strong and skilled at arms as he is.  He also has a sword that for a weapon is a trusty one.”