A great grin spread over his face and then, approaching Tom, he leaned over, touched him once on the forehead, and uttered a word.  At this sign of royal favor the other giants at once bowed to Tom.

“Say,” cried Ned, “you’ve got his number all right!  You’re one of the royal family now, Tom.”

“It looks like it.  Well, I’m glad of it, for I want to be on friendly terms with His Royal Highness.”

Once more the king addressed Tom, and the head hunter, motioning to Tom and his friends, led them out of the palace, and to a large hut not far off.  This, he made himself understood by signs, was to be their resting place, and truly it was not a bad home, for it was well made.  It had simple furniture in it, low couches covered with skins, stools, and there were several rooms to it.

Calling in authorative tones to his fellow hunters, Tom had them take the packs off the beasts of burdens and soon the boxes, bales and packages were carried into the big hut, which was destined to be the abiding place of our friends for some time.  The animals were then led away.

“Well, here we are, safe and sound, with all our possessions about us,” commented Tom, when all but Oom had withdrawn.  “I guess we’ll make out all right in giant land.  I wonder what they have to eat?  Or perhaps we’d better tackle some of our own grub.”

He looked at Oom, who laughed gleefully.  Then Tom rubbed his stomach, opened his mouth and pointed to it and said:  “We’d like to eat—­we’re hungry!”

Oom boomed out something in his bass voice, grinned cheerfully, and hurried out.  A little later he came back, and following him, a number of giant women.  Each one bore a wooden platter or slab of bark which answered for a plate.  The plates were covered with broad palm leaves, and when they had been set down on low benches, and the coverings removed, our friends saw they had food in abundance.

There was some boiled lamb, some roasted fowls, some cereal that looked like boiled rice, some sweet potatoes, a number of other things which could only be guessed at, and a big gourd filled with something that smelled like sweet cider.

“Say, this is a feast all right, after what we’ve been living on!” cried Tom.

Once more Oom laughed joyfully, pointing to the food and to our friends in turn.

“Oh, we’ll eat all right!” exclaimed Tom.  “Don’t worry about that!”

The good-natured giant showed them where they could find rude wooden dishes and table implements, and then he left them alone.  It was rather awkward at first, for though the bench or table looked low in comparison to the size of the room, yet it was very high, to allow for the long legs of the giants getting under it.

“If we stay here long enough we can saw off the table legs,” said the young inventor.  “Now for our first meal in giant land.”

They were just helping themselves when there arose a great shouting outside.