So when the king said this, at first I thought of saying only that I had surely found out where she was hidden.

But then I would not keep back what Ailwin had said, for Olaf might have advice for me.
Therefore I sat down and told them all the story of my talks with the priest and the thrall, adding that I was the more sure that Gunnhild was hard by, because Ailwin had said that it was but yesterday she had given him the message for me.
Then Olaf said: "Cousin, I think these two old folk are right.

Better wait for peace, as they say." "It is not so sure that Cnut will come back," I said.
"Is it not ?" said Olaf.

"Why--seeing that he has left his host of thingmen in the towns, and we had Thorkel's foster brother to fight but the other day, and that these Danes do not yield at once and so gain peace and hold what they have, but will rather fight than own Ethelred--I think that none can well doubt that word has gone round the Danes in the kingdom that he will return, and that they need not fear to hold out till he comes." Then the last doubt of trouble to come passed from me, for it was plain that these thingmen looked for help presently.

But Olaf was thinking of my affairs again.
"Four years is overlong for anyone to play ghost on a whole countryside," he said laughing.