Yet I thought it well to take his dagger from where it lay, lest he should fall on me in some frenzy.
I took up the weapon, and straightway I longed to draw it and end his life at once, while all sorts of plans for escape thereafter came into my mind.

But I could not slay a helpless man, even this one, though I sat fingering the dagger for a long while.

At last the evilness of these thoughts was plain to me; so quickly I cast the dagger overboard, and it was gone.
Then I thought I would sleep while I might, for there was no sea to fear, and the tide set with the wind away from shore from the river mouth, as I knew well, for it was ebbing.

It was weary work to watch the land growing less and less plain under the moon.

Yet I feared Beorn's treachery, and doubted for a while, until the coil of rope that lay at my feet caught my eye as I pondered.