Part 20 (2/2)

”Then let's plan some way to beat him,” suggested Mr. Damon. ”Look over your goods, Tom, and make the king a present that will bind his friends.h.i.+p to us.”

”I believe I will,” decided the young inventor and then he and Ned began overhauling the boxes and bales, while a crowd of curious giants stood without their hut, and another throng surrounded the palace of the giant king.

”There goes Delby out to get something from his baggage,” announced Ned, looking from the window. Tom saw his rival taking something from one of the packs slung across the back of a mule. Soon the circus agent hurried back into the king's hut, and a moment later there was heard the strains of a banjo being picked by an unpracticed hand. It was succeeded by a rattling tune played in good style.

”Bless my fiddlestick!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, ”Does your phonograph have a banjo record, Tom?”

”No.” was the somewhat hesitating answer of the young inventor.

”Delby who can play a banjo himself must have given Kosk one for a present, and, like a child, the king is amused by the latest novelty. So far he has scored one on us,” he added, as once more they heard the unmelodious strains of the banjo slowly picked. ”The king is evidently learning to play the instrument, and he'd rather have that than a phonograph, which only winds up.”

”But haven't you some other things you can give the king to off-set the banjo?” asked Mr. Damon.

”Plenty of them,” replied Tom. ”But if I give him--say a toy steam engine, for I have one among our things--what is to prevent Delby giving him some other novelty that will take his attention? In that way we'll sea-saw back and forth, and I guess Delby has had more experience in this business than I have. It's going to be a question which of us gets a giant.”

”Bless my reserved seat ticket!” exclaimed Mr. Damon. ”I never heard of such a thing! But, Tom, I'm sure we'll win out.”

”Get something startling to give the king,” advised Ned, and Tom began opening one of the boxes that had been transported with such labor from the coast.

”Delby had much better luck with his mule drivers than we did Tom,”

remarked Ned as he saw the two natives standing by the pack animals of the rival circus man. ”They evidently didn't get scared off by the giants.”

”No, but probably he didn't tell them where they were headed for.

Though, as a matter of fact, I don't believe any one has anything to fear from these big men. All they ask is to be let alone. They're not at all warlike, and I don't believe they'd attack the other natives. But probably their size makes them feared, and when our drivers heard the word 'giant' they simply wilted.”

”Guess you're right. But come on, Tom. If we're going to make the king a present that will open his eyes, and get him on our side instead of Delby's, we'd better be getting at it.”

”I will. This is what I'm going to give him,” and Tom brought out from a box a small toy circus, with many performing animals and acrobats, the whole being worked by a small steam engine that burned alcohol for fuel. A little water put in the boiler of the toy engine, a lighting of the alcohol wick and there would be a toy that even a youngster of the United States might be proud to own.

”Mah land a ma.s.sy!” exclaimed Eradicate as Tom got the apparatus ready to work. ”Dat sh.o.r.e will please him!”

”It ought to,” replied the young inventor. ”Come on, now I'm ready.”

Delby had not yet come from the king's hut, and as Tom and his friends, bearing the new toy, were about to leave the structure that had been set aside for their use, they saw a crowd of the giant men approaching. Each of the big men carried a club and a spear.

”Bless my eye gla.s.ses!” gasped Mr. Damon. ”Something is wrong. What can it be?”

He had his answer a moment later. With a firm but gentle motion the chief giant shoved our four friends back into the hut, and then pulled the gra.s.s mat over the opening. Then, as Tom and the others could see by looking from a crack, he and several others took their position in front, while other giants went to the various windows, stationing themselves outside like sentries around a guard house.

”Bless my--” began Mr. Damon, but words failed him.

”We're prisoners!” gasped Ned.

”It looks like it,” admitted Tom grimly. ”Evidently Delby has carried out his threat and set the king against us. We are to be held captives here, and he can do as he pleases. Oh, why didn't I think sooner.”

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