Without mentioning giants at all, he took Mr. Preston home with him, and the circus man’s tale of his assistant lost in the wilds of South America was too much for Mrs. Damon.

“Go?  Of course you’ll go!” she said to her husband.  “I demand that you go, and I want you to find that poor man and rescue him.  If you could rescue the exiles from uncivilized Siberia I’m sure you can get a man out of a civilized country.”

Mr. Damon did not stop to point out that South America was far less civilized, in some ways, than was Russia.  He just kept still, and made his preparations to go.  Mr. Preston was a distant relative of the odd man, and that was how he had happened to meet him and hear the story which was destined to play such an important part in the life of Tom Swift.

“Do you think we’ll have much trouble after we get to South America, and strike into the interior?” asked Mr. Damon one afternoon, when he and Mr. Preston were helping Tom in the delicate work of packing the wing planes of the Lark.

“No, South America isn’t a bad country to travel in,” replied the circus man.  “The natives are fairly friendly, and with a well-organized party, and plenty of money, which I shall see that you have, you ought to get along swimmingly.  Only one thing bothers me.”

“What’s that?” asked Tom quickly.

“That’s my rival, Waydell.  He’s sure to make trouble if he gets on your trail.”

“Have you heard from him?”

“No, and that’s what makes me all the more suspicious.  If he’d come out and fight me in the open it wouldn’t be so bad.  But this underhand business gets on my nerves.  I don’t know what he’s up to.”

“Maybe he isn’t up to anything,” suggested Ned.  “He may not even know you are going to make another try for the giants.”

“Oh, yes, he does,” replied the circus man.  “He didn’t succeed in beating me when poor Jake was after them, for the simple reason that it was a snap case, and even I didn’t know that Poddington was trying for the giants until he had started.  But Waydell was soon after him, and he knows that when I once set out for a freak or a certain kind of animal I keep on until I get it.  So he has probably already figured out that I’m making new plans to get a giant.”

“But how will he know that I am going?” inquired Tom.

“I don’t know how he will know, but he will.  We circus men have queer ways of finding out things.  I shouldn’t be a bit surprised but what he was already plotting and scheming to send an expedition on my trail, to take advantage of anything you may learn.”

“Well, we’ll try and fool him, the same as we did the Mexicans when we hunted for the city of gold,” spoke Tom; and then putting aside that worry, he and the others labored hard to get matters in shape for a departure to South America.

“I suppose Eradicate is going,” remarked Ned, in the intervals of packing the aeroplane.