, several sorry looking horses, and a
number of sleepy-eyed steers. But there were enough of them to carry
all the boxes and bales that contained the outfit of our friends.

"It might be worse," commented Tom. "Now if they'll help us pack up
we'll travel on."

More sign language was resorted to, and the chief, after another
present had been made to him, sent some of his men to help put the
packs on the animals. The steers, which Tom did not regard with much
favor, proved to be better than the mules, and by noon our friends
were all packed up again, and ready to take the trail. The chief
gave them a good dinner,--as native dinners go,--and then, after
telling them that, though he had never seen the giants it had long
been known that they inhabited the country to the north, he waved
a friendly good-bye.

"Well, we'll see what luck we'll have by ourselves," remarked Tom,
as he mounted a bony mule, an example followed by Ned, Mr. Damon and
Eradicate, They had left behind some of their goods, and so did not
have so much to carry. Food they had in condensed form and they were
getting into the more tropical part of the country where game
abounded.

It was not as easy as they had imagined it would be for, with only
four to drive so many animals, several of the beasts were
continually straying from the trail, and once a big steer, with part
of the aeroplane on its back, wandered into a morass and they had to
labor hard to get the animal out.

"Well, this is fierce!" exclaimed Tom, at the end of the first day
when, tired and weary, bitten by insects, and torn by jungle briars,
they made camp that night.

"Going to give up?" asked Ned.

"Not much!"

They felt better after supper, and, tethering the animals securely,
they stretched out in their tents, with mosquito canopies over them
to keep away the pestering insects.

"I've got a new scheme," announced Tom next morning at breakfast.

"What is it? Going on the rest of the way in the aeroplane?" asked
Ned hopefully.

"No, though I believe if I had brought the big airship along I could
have used it. But I mean about driving the animals. I'm going to
make a long line of them, tying one to the other like the elephants
in the circus when they march around, holding each other's tails.
Then one of us will ride in front, another in the rear, and one on
each side. In that way we'll keep them going and they won't stray
off."

"Bless my button hook!" cried Mr. Damon. "That'