THE man who was to draw out the lots then took up one of the lots between his fingers, held it up in the air, and said, “This lot shall be the first to ride, and to row, and to take place in harbour and on the tent field.”
Harald seized his hand, snatched the die, and threw it into the sea, and called out, “That was our lot!” Gyrger said, “Why did you not let other people see it?” Harald replies, “Look at the one remaining in the box, — there you see your own mark upon it.” Accordingly the lot which was left behind was examined, and all men saw that Gyrger’s mark was upon it, and accordingly the judgment was given that the Væringers had gained the first choice in all they had been quarrelling about.*
There were many things they quarrelled about, but the end always was that Harald got his own way.
abridged
As the reader more keen-eyed than Giorgios Maniakis will have seen, Harald marked his lot with the mark that Giorgios scratched on his, so the two were the same. That meant that when the winning lot was thrown away (concealing the scam) the lot left in the box was bound to have Giorgios’s mark on it, and Giorgios would be declared the loser.