d signs of
being frequently used.

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

"There always have been giants," declared the young inventor. "I
read about them in an encyclopedia before I started on this trip. Of
course there's lots of wild stories about giants, but there have
really been some very big men. Take the skeleton in the museum of
Trinity College, Dublin. It is eight feet and a half in height, and
the living man must have even taller. There was a giant named
O'Brien, and his skeleton is in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of England--that one is eight feet two inches high, while
there are reliable records to show that, when living, O'Brien was
two inches taller than that. In fact, according to the books, there
have 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 than
these fellows, though any one of these would be a prize for a
museum. Not a one is less than eight feet, and if we could get one
say 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, yet
such was the fact. Of course the country itself was no different
from any other part of the jungle, for merely because big men lived
in 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 their
great size. Then they must have lived under favorable conditions,
had plenty of flesh and bone-forming food, and after several
generations they gradually grew larger. You know that by feeding the
right kind of food to animals you can make them bigger, while if
they 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 nothing
wonderful in this."

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

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

"There is the city of the giants!" cried To