'So shall it be,'
said Egil.
'I will release Thorstein from this journey.
But how many men think ye that ye need to take from hence?'
'We are eight,' said they;
'we would fain have four men go from hence; then are we twelve.'
Egil said it should be so.
Aunund Sjoni and some of Egil's company had gone out to sea,
to look after their ship and another cargo which they had given
into safe keeping in the autumn, and they had not yet returned.
Egil thought this a great pity,
but the king's men were impatient to be gone, and would not wait.