"The king's brothers may find an opportunity to come and talk to us
when the feast is at its height," was the reply.
Anxiously they waited, and in order that the royal brothers might
come in unobserved, if they did conclude to speak to the captives,
Tom and his companions hung some pieces of canvas over the windows
and doors, and had only a single light burning.
It was at midnight that a cautious knock sounded at the side of the
hut and Tom glided to the main door. In the shadows he saw the two
royal brothers, Tola and Koku.
"Here they are!" whispered Tom to Jake Poddington, who came forward.
"Come!" invited the circus man in the giants' tongue, and the
brothers entered the hut.
How Jake persuaded them to throw in their fortunes with the captives
the circus man hardly knew himself. Perhaps it was due as much as
anything to the dislike they felt toward the king, and the mean way
he had treated them.
"Come, and you will be kings among the small men in our country,"
invited Poddington. The brothers looked at each other, talked
together in low tones, and then Koku exclaimed:
"We will come, and we will help you to escape.
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