“But good land a massy, dey’ll eat up eberyt’ing we got, Massa Tom,” objected the colored man.

“Can’t help it, Rad.  They’re our guests and we’ve got to be polite,” replied the youth.  “It isn’t every day that we have giants to breakfast.”

The big men watched curiously while Rad built a fire, and when the colored man was trying to break a tough stick of wood with the axe, one of the giants picked up the fagot and snapped it in his fingers as easily as though it were a twig, though the stick was as thick as Tom’s arm.

“Some strength there,” murmured Ned to his chum admiringly.

“Yes, if they took a notion to go on a rampage we’d have trouble.  But they seem kind and gentle.”

Indeed the giants did, and they liked the coffee which they tasted rather gingerly at first.  After their first sip they wanted more, made as sweet as possible, and they laughed and talked among themselves while Eradicate boiled pot after pot.

“Dey suah will eat us out of house an’ home, Massa Tom,” he wailed.

“Never mind, Rad.  They will feed us well when we get to their town.”

Then the pack animals were laden with their burdens.  This was always a task, but for the giants it was child’s play.  With one hand they would lift a box or bale that used to tax the combined strength of the four travelers, and soon the steers, horses and mules were ready to proceed.  The giants went on ahead, to show the way, the first one, who seemed to be called “Oom,” for that was the way his companions addressed him, walked beside Tom, who rode on a mule.  In fact the giant had to walk slowly, so as not to get ahead of the animal.  Oom tried to talk to Tom, but it was hard work to pick out the signs that meant something, and so neither gained much information.

Tom did gather, however, that the giants were out on an early hunt when they had discovered our friends, and their chief town lay about half a day’s journey off in the jungle.  The path along which they proceeded, was better than the forest trails, and showed signs of being frequently used.

“It doesn’t seem possible that we are really among giants, Tom,” spoke Ned, as they rode along.  “I hardly believed there were giants.”

“There always have been giants,” declared the young inventor.  “I read about them in an encyclopedia before I started on this trip.  Of course there’s lots of wild stories about giants, but there have really been some very big men.  Take the skeleton in the museum of Trinity College, Dublin.  It is eight feet and a half in height, and the living man must have even taller.  There was a giant named O’Brien, and his skeleton is in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of England—­that one is eight feet two inches high, while there are reliable records to show that, when living, O’Brien was two inches taller than that.  In fact, according to the books, there have been a number of giants nine feet high.”