icle.
But none of them were very big. A shade under eight feet was the
limit with me."

"I also have lots of wild animals, and it was when some of my men
were out after some tapirs, jaguars and leopards that I got on the
track of the giants. It was about a year ago, but up to this time I
haven't seen my way clear to send after the big men. It was this
way:"

Mr. Preston assumed a more comfortable position in his chair, nodded
at Mr. Damon, who was listening attentively to all that was said,
and resumed.

"As I said I had sent Jake Poddington, one of my best men, after
tapirs and some other South American animals. He didn't have very
good luck hunting along the Amazon. In the first place that region
has been pretty well cleaned out of circus animals, and another
thing it's getting too well populated. Another thing is that you
can't get the native hunters and beaters to work for you as they did
years ago."

"So Poddington wrote to me that he was going to take his assistants,
make a big jump, and hike it for the Argentine Republic. He had a
tip that along the Salado river there might be something doing, and
I told him to go ahead."

"He shipped me what few animals he had, and lit out for a three
thousand mile journey. I didn't hear from him for some time, and,
when I did, I got the finest collection of animals I had ever laid
eyes on. I got them about the same time I did a letter from Jake,
for the mail service ain't what you could call rushing in that part
of South America."

"But what about the giants?" interrupted Mr. Damon.

"I'm coming to them," replied the circus man calmly. "It was this
way: At the tail of his letter which he sent with the shipment of
animals Jake said this, and I remember it almost word for word:"

"'If all goes well,' he wrote, 'I'll have a big surprise for you
soon. I've heard a story about a race of big natives that have their
stamping ground in this section, and I'm going to try for a few
specimens. I know how much you want a giant.'"

"Well?" asked Tom, after a pause, for the circus man had ceased
talking and was staring out of the opened library window into the
garden that was just becoming green.

"That was all I ever heard from poor Jake," said Mr. Preston softly.

"Bless my insurance policy!" gasped Mr. Damon. "You didn't tell me
that! What happened to him."

"I never could find out," resumed Mr. Preston. "I never heard
another word from him, and I've never seen him from