stick!" 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 mas