But Beorn only grovelled the more, and Hubba spurned him again, turning to me.
"I believe you speak truth," he said quietly, "and you are a brave man.

There was no need for you to tell the accusation against yourself; and many are the lies you might have told us about the boat that would have been enough for us.

We never thought to hear that our father had outlived the storm." "I speak truth, Jarl," I said, sadly enough, "and Halfden will come to our haven, seeking us both, and will find neither--only this ill news instead of all we had planned of pleasure." Then Hubba asked me plainly of Beorn, saying: "What of this cur ?" "No more than I have told you, Jarl," I said.
"How came he into the forest ?" asked Hubba, for he saw that there was more than he knew yet under Beorn's utter terror.
"Let me tell you that story from end to end," I answered.
And he nodded, so that I did so, from the time when I left the jarl until Ulfkytel sentenced us, giving all the words of the witnesses as nearly as I could.

Then I said that I would leave them to judge, for I could not.
Now Ingvar, who had sat biting his nails and listening without a word, broke in, questioning me of Halfden's ship for long.

At last he said: "This man tells truth, and I will not harm him.