ound it with
torches."

"Maybe they're going to escort Delby to a hut with the same honors
they paid us," suggested Tom. "If they do, we'll set off the
fireworks as he comes out and maybe they'll think he is afflicted
with bad magic, and they'll give us our freedom."

"Good idea!" cried Ned. "Say, that's what they're going to do," he
added a moment later as, in the glare of a number of torches, there
could be seen issuing from the king's palace, the two big giants,
evidently his brothers. Between them was the figure of the circus
man, looking like a dwarf. He was not so far away but what the smile
of triumph on his face could be seen as he glanced in the direction
of the darkened hut where Tom and his friends were captives.

"Now's our chance!" cried the young inventor. "Set 'em off, Ned. You
help, Mr. Damon. The more noise and fuss we make at once, the more
impressive it will be. Set off everything in sight!"

There was a flicker of matches as they were applied to the fuses,
and then a splutter of sparks. An instant later it seemed as if the
whole heavens had been lighted up.

Sky rockets shot screaming toward the zenith, aerial bombs went
whirling slantingly upward amid a shower of sparks, then to burst
with deafening reports, sending out string after string of colored
lights. Red and green fire gleamed, and the hot balls from Roman
candles burst forth. There was a whizz, a rush and a roar. Blinding
flashes and startling reports followed each other as Tom and his
friends set off the fireworks. It was like the Independence Day
celebration of some little country village, and to the simple giants
it must have seemed as if a volcano had suddenly gone into action.

For several minutes the din and racket, the glare and explosions,
kept up, pouring out of the big window of the hut. And then, as the
last of the display was shot off, and darkness seemed to settle down
blacker than ever over the giant village, there arose howls of fear
and terror from the big men and their women and children. They cried
aloud in their thunderous voices, and there was fear in every cry.

CHAPTER XIX

WEAK GIANTS

A great silence followed the setting off of the fireworks--silence
and darkness--and even the circus man ceased to shout. He wanted to
see what the effect would be. So did Tom and the others. When their
eyes had become used to the gloom again, after the glare of the
rockets and bombs, the young inventor said:

"Loo