ked too big
for him! Koku started up in the back of the car as the latter drew
nearer to the stranger.

The man looked back at last and Tom gained a clear view of his
features--roughly carved, dark as an Indian's, and holding a grim
expression in repose that of itself was far from breeding confidence.
In a moment, too, the expression changed into one of active emotion.
The man glared at the young inventor with unmistakable malevolence.

"Master!" hissed Koku again. "The big feet!" The fellow must have seen
Koku's face and understood the giant's expression. In a flash he turned
and leaped out of the roadway. The sidehill was steep and broken here,
but he went down the slope in great strides and with every appearance
of wishing to evade the two in the motor-car.

The giant's savage war cry followed the fugitive. Koku leaped from the
moving car. Tom yelled:

"Stop it, Koku! You don't know that that is the man."

"The big feet!" repeated the giant. "Master see the red mud dried on
Big Feet's boots? That mud from Master's garden."

Again Koku uttered his savage cry, and in strides twice the length of
those of the running man, started on the latter's trail.

Chapter VIII

An Enemy in the Dark

The situation offered suggestions of trouble that stung Tom to
immediate action. The impetuousness of his giant often resulted in
difficulties which the young inventor would have been glad to escape.

Now Koku was following just the wrong path. Tom Swift knew it.

"Koku, you madman!" he shouted after the huge native. "Come back here!
Hear me? Back!"

Koku hesitated. He shot a wondering look over his shoulder, but his
long legs continued to carry him down the slope after the dark-faced
stranger.

"Come back, I say!" shouted Tom again. "Have I got to come after you?
Koku! If you don't mind what you're told I'll send you back to your own
country and you'll have to eat snakes and lizards, as you used to. Come
here!"

Whether it was because of this threat of a change of diet, which Koku
now abhorred, or the fact that he had really become somewhat
disciplined and that he fairly worshiped Tom, the giant stopped. The
man with the big shoes disappeared behind a hedge of low trees.

"Get back up here!" ejaculated Tom sternly. "I'll never take you away
from the house with me again if you don't obey me."

"Master!" ejaculated the giant, slowly approaching. "That Big Feet--"

"I don't care if he made those footprints in