It was a momentous question, and no one could answer it.  Tom was doing some hard thinking those days.  Two weeks passed and there was no change.  Our friends were still captives in giant land.  They had tried, by signs, to induce their guards to take some message to the king, but the giants refused with shakes of their big heads.

Yet the adventurers could not complain of bad treatment.  They were well fed, and the guards seemed good natured, laughing among themselves, and smiling whenever they saw any of the captives.  But let Tom or some of the others, step across the threshold of the door, and they were kindly, but firmly, shoved back.

“It’s of no use!” exclaimed Tom in despair one day, after a bold attempt to walk out.  “We’ve got to do something.  If we can’t get word to the king we’ve got to plan some way to gain the friendship, or work on the fear of the guards.  We have about the same crowd every time.  If we can scare them they may keep far enough off so we can have a chance to escape.”

“Escape!  That’s the thing!” cried Mr. Damon.  “Why can’t we put the airship together in this hut, Tom, and fly away in it?”

“We can, when the right time comes—­if it ever does—­but first we’ve got to work on the guards.  Let me see what I can do?  Ha!  I have it.  Ned, come here, I want your help.  I’m going to show these giants that, with all their strength, I can make each of them as weak as a baby, and, at the same time prove that they can’t lift even a light weight.”

“How you going to do it?” asked Mr. Damon.

“I’ll soon show you.  Come on, Ned.”

Tom and his chum were busy for several days among the various boxes and bales that formed the baggage.  They rigged up two pieces of apparatus which I will describe in due time.  They also opened several boxes of trinkets and trading goods, which had been brought along for barter.  These they distributed among the guards, and, though the giants were immensely pleased, they did not get friendly enough to walk off and leave our friends free to do as they pleased.

“Well, I guess we’re ready for the lesson now,” remarked Tom one afternoon, when they had been held captives for about three weeks.  “If they won’t respond to gentle treatment we’ll try some other kind of persuasion.”

The guards had become so friendly of late that some of them often spent part of the day inside the hut, looking at the curious things Tom and his party had brought with them.  This was just what the young inventor wanted, as he was now ready to give them a second lesson in white man’s magic.

Tom and Ned had learned a few words of the giant’s language, which was quite simple, though it sounded hard, and one day, after he had shown them simple toys, the young inventor brought forth a simple-looking box, with two shining handles.

“Here is a little thing,” explained Tom, partly by words, and partly by using signs, “a simple little thing which, if one of you will but take hold of, you cannot let go of again until I move my finger.  Do you believe that a small white man like myself can make this little thing stronger than a giant?” he asked.