e handle on the top. The bottom was ground very smooth.

"This is very small and light," explained Tom, partly by signs, and
partly by words. "I can easily lift it by one finger, and to a giant
it is but a feather's weight."

He let the giants handle it, and of course they could feel scarcely
any weight at all, for it tipped the scales at only a pound. But it
was shortly to be much heavier.

"See," went on the young inventor. "I place the weight on the floor,
and lift it easily. Can you do it?"

The giants laughed at such a simple trick. Tom set the iron bar down
and raised it several times. So did several of the giants.

"Now for the test!" cried Tom with a dramatic gesture. "I shall put
my magic upon you, and you shall all become as weak as babies. You
cannot lift the bar of iron!"

As he spoke he made a signal to Ned, who stood in a distant corner
of the room. Then Tom carefully placed the weight on a sheet of
white paper on a certain spot on the floor of the hut and motioned
to the largest giant to pick up the iron bar.

With a laugh of contempt and confidence, the big man stooped over
and grasped the handle. But he did not arise. Instead, the muscles
of his naked arm swelled out in great bunches.

"See, you are as a little babe!" taunted Tom. "Another may try!"

Another did, and another and another, until it came the turn of the
mightiest giant of all the guard that day. With a sudden wrench he
sought to lift the bar. He tugged and strained. He bent his back and
his legs; his shoulders heaved with the terrific effort he made--but
the bar still held to the floor of the hut as though a part of the
big beams themselves.

"Now!" cried Tom. "I shall show you how a white man's magic makes
him stronger than the biggest giant."

Once more he made a hidden sign to Ned, and then, stooping over, Tom
crooked his little finger in the handle of the iron bar and lifted
it as easily as if it was a feather.

CHAPTER XX

THE LONE CAPTIVE

The murmurs of astonishment that greeted Tom's seemingly marvelous
feat of strength was even greater than that which had marked his
trick with the electric battery. The giants stared at him as though
they feared the next moment he might suddenly turn upon them and
hurl them about like ten-pins.

"You see, it is easy when one knows the white man's magic," spoke
Tom, making many gestures to help along. "Go tell your king that it
is not well that he keeps us prisoners here,