Tom Swift in Captivity, Or, A Daring Escape By Airship

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XV

  IN THE "PALACE" OF THE KING

  For a few moments after their first ejaculations neither Tom nor Nedknew what to do. The giant continued to gaze at them, with the samegood-natured grin on his face. Possibly he was amused at the smallsize of the persons in the tent. Then Tom spoke.

  "He doesn't look as if he would bite, Ned."

  "No, he seems harmless enough. Let's get up, and see what happens. Iwonder if there are any more of them? They must have come out on anearly hunt, and stumbled upon our camp."

  At this moment there arose a cry from Mr. Damon's tent.

  "Bless my burglar alarm!" shouted the odd gentleman. "Tom--Ned--am Idreaming? There's a man here as big as a mountain. Tom! Ned!"

  "It's all right, Mr. Damon!" called Tom. "We're among the giants allright. They won't hurt you."

  "Fo' de good land ob massy!" screamed Eradicate, a second later, andthen they knew that he, too, had seen one of the big men. "Fo' delub ob pork chops! Am dis de Angel Gabriel? Listen to de blowin' obde trump! Oh, please good Massa Angel Gabriel, I ain't nebber donenuffin! I's jest po' ol' Eradicate Sampson, an' I got a muleBoomerang, and' dat's all I got. Please good Mr. Angel--"

  "Dry up, Rad!" yelled Tom. "It's only one of the giants. Come on outof your tent and get breakfast. We're on the borders of giant land,evidently, and they seem as harmless as ordinary men. Get up,everybody."

  As Tom spoke he rose from the rubber blanket on which he slept. Neddid the same, and the giant slowly pulled his head out from thetent. Then the two youths went outside. A strange sight met theirgaze.

  There were about ten natives standing in the camp--veritable giants,big men in every way. The young inventor had once seen a giant in acircus, and, allowing for shoes with very thick soles which the bigman wore, his height was a little over seven feet. But these SouthAmerican giants seemed more than a foot higher than that, none ofthose who had stumbled upon the camp being less than eight feet.

  "And I believe there must be bigger ones in their land, whereverthat is," said Tom. Nor were these giants tall and thin, as was theone Tom had seen, but stout, and well proportioned. They weresavages, that was evident, but the curious part of it was that theywere almost white, and looked much like the pictures of the oldNorsemen.

  But, best of all, they seemed good-natured, for they werecontinually laughing or smiling, and though they looked with wonderon the pile of boxes and bales, and on the four travelers, theyseemed more bewildered and amused, than vindictive that theircountry should have been invaded. Evidently the fears of the nativeswho had told Tom about the giants had been unfounded.

  By this time Mr. Damon and Eradicate had come from their tents, andwere gazing with startled eyes at the giants who surrounded them.

  "Bless my walking stick!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "Is it possible?"

  "Yes, we've arrived!" cried Tom. "Now to see what happens. I wonderif they'll take us to their village, and I wonder if I can get oneof these giants for Mr. Preston's circus?"

  "You certainly can't unless he wants to come," declared Ned. "You'dhave a hard tussle trying to carry one of these fellows away againsthis will, Tom."

  "I sure would. I'll have to make inducements. Well, I wonder what isbest to do?"

  The giant who had looked in the tent of Ned and Tom, and whoappeared to be the leader of the party, now spoke in his big,booming voice. He seemed to be asking Tom a question, but the younginventor could not understand the language. Tom replied in Spanish,giving a short account of why he and his companions had come to thecountry, but the giant shook his head. Then Mr. Damon, who knewseveral languages, tried all of them--but it was of no use.

  "We've got to go back to signs," declared Tom, and then, as best hecould, he indicated that he and the others had come from afar toseek the giants. He doubted whether he was understood, and hedecided to wait until later to try and make them acquainted with thefact that he wanted one of them to come back with him.

  The head giant nodded, showing that at least he understoodsomething, and then spoke to his companions. They conversed in theirloud voices for some time, and then motioned to the pack animals.

  "I guess they want us to come along," said Tom, "but let's havebreakfast first. Rad, get things going. Maybe the giants will havesome coffee and condensed milk, though they'll have to take aboutten cupsful to make them think they've had anything. Make a lot ofcoffee, Rad."

  "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 tobreakfast."

  The big men watched curiously while Rad built a fire, and when thecolored 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 fingersas easily as though it were a twig, though the stick was as thick asTom'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 tastedrather gingerly at first. After their first sip they wanted more,made as sweet as possible, and they laughed and talked amongthemselves 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 alwaysa task, but for the giants it was child's play. With one hand theywould lift a box or bale that used to tax the combined strength ofthe four travelers, and soon the steers, horses and mules were readyto proceed. The giants went on ahead, to show the way, the firstone, who seemed to be called "Oom," for that was the way hiscompanions addressed him, walked beside Tom, who rode on a mule. Infact the giant had to walk slowly, so as not to get ahead of theanimal. Oom tried to talk to Tom, but it was hard work to pick outthe signs that meant something, and so neither gained muchinformation.

  Tom did gather, however, that the giants were out on an early huntwhen they had discovered our friends, and their chief town lay abouthalf a day's journey off in the jungle. The path along which theyproceeded, was better than the forest trails, and showed signs ofbeing frequently used.

  "It doesn't seem possible that we are really among giants, Tom,"spoke Ned, as they rode along. "I hardly believed there weregiants."

  "There always have been giants," declared the young inventor. "Iread about them in an encyclopedia before I started on this trip. Ofcourse there's lots of wild stories about giants, but there havereally been some very big men. Take the skeleton in the museum ofTrinity College, Dublin. It is eight feet and a half in height, andthe living man must have even taller. There was a giant namedO'Brien, and his skeleton is in the College of Physicians andSurgeons of England--that one is eight feet two inches high, whilethere are reliable records to show that, when living, O'Brien wastwo inches taller than that. In fact, according to the books, therehave been a number of giants nine feet high."

  "Then these chaps aren't so wonderful," replied Ned.

  "Oh, we haven't seen them all yet. We may find some bigger thanthese fellows, though any one of these would be a prize for amuseum. Not a one is less than eight feet, and if we could get onesay ten feet--that WOULD be a find."

  "Rather an awkward one," commented Ned.

  It did not seem possible that they were really in giant land, yetsuch was the fact. Of course the country itself was no differentfrom any other part of the jungle, for merely because big men livedin it did not make the trees or plants any larger.

  "I tell you how I account for it," said Tom, as they traveled on."These men originally belonged to a race of people noted for theirgreat size. Then they must have lived under favorable conditions,had plenty of flesh and bone-forming food, and after severalgenerations they gradually grew larger. You know that by feeding theright kin
d of food to animals you can make them bigger, while ifthey get the wrong kind they are runts, or dwarfs."

  "Oh, yes; that's a well-known fact," chimed in Mr. Damon.

  "Then why not with human beings?" went on Tom. "There's nothingwonderful in this."

  "No, but it will be wonderful if we get away with one of thesegiants," spoke Ned grimly.

  Further talk was interrupted by a sudden shouting on the part of thebig men. Oom made some rapid motions to Tom, and a little later theyemerged from the woods upon a large, grassy plain, on the other sideof which could be seen a cluster of big grass and mud huts.

  "There is the city of the giants!" cried Tom, and so it proved, alittle later, when they got to it.

  Now there was nothing remarkable about this city or native town. Itwas just like any other in the wilder parts of South America orAfrica. There was a central place, where, doubtless, the nativesgathered on market days, and from this the huts of the inhabitantsstretched out in irregular lines, like streets. Off to one side ofthe "market square," as Tom called it, was a large hut, surroundedby several smaller ones, and from the manner in which it was laidout, and decorated, it was evident that this was the "palace" of theking, or chief ruler.

  "Say, look at that fellow!" cried Ned, pointing to a giant who wasjust entering the "palace" as Tom dubbed the big hut. "He LOOKSeleven feet if he's an inch."

  "I believe you!" cried Tom. "Say, I wonder how big the king is?"

  "I don't know, but he must be a top-notcher. I wonder what willhappen to us?"

  Oom, who had Tom and his party in charge, led them to the "palace"and it was evident that they were going to be presented to the chiefor native king. Back of our friends stretched out their pack train,the beasts carrying the boxes and bales. Surrounding them werenearly all the inhabitants of the giants' town, and when thecavalcade had come to a halt in front of the "palace," Oom raisedhis voice in a mighty shout. It was taken up by the populace, andthen every one of them knelt down.

  "I guess His Royal Highness is about to appear," said Tom grimly.

  "Yes, maybe we'd better kneel, too," spoke Ned.

  "Not much! We're citizens of the United States, and we don't kneelto anybody. I'm going to stand up."

  "So am I!" said Mr. Damon.

  An instant later the grass mat that formed the front door of the"palace" was drawn aside, and there stood confronting our hero andhis friends, the King of Giant Land. And a mighty king was he insize, for he must have been a shade over ten feet tall, while oneither side of him was a man nearly as big as himself.

  Once more Oom boomed out a mighty shout and, kneeling as the giantswere, they took it up, repeating it three times. The king raised hishand as though in blessing upon his people, and then, eyeing Tom andhis three friends he beckoned them to approach.

  "He wants to see us at close range," whispered the young inventor."Come on, Ned and Mr. Damon. Trail along, Eradicate."

  "Good--good land ob massy!" stammered the colored man. And then thelittle party advanced into the "palace" of the giant king.