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Rh party was given comfortable huts in which to sleep, and a plentiful supply of provisions.

"Can you arrange for a talk with the chief?" asked Tom of San Pedro that night. "I want to ask him about certain things."

"About where you can find giant flowers?" asked the mule driver with a quick look.

"Yes—er—and other giant things," replied Tom.

"I fix," answered San Pedro shortly, but there was a queer look on his face.

A few hours later Tom was summoned to the hut of the chief of the town, and thither he went with Ned, Mr. Damon and San Pedro as interpreter, for the natives spoke a jargon of their own that Tom could not understand.

There were some simple ceremonies to observe, and then Tom found himself facing the chief, with San Pedro by his side. After the greetings, land an exchange of presents, Tom giving him a cheap phonograph with which the chief was wildly delighted, there came the time to talk.

"Ask him where the giant men live?" our hero directed San Pedro, believing that the time had now come to disclose the object of his expedition.

"Giant men, Senor Swift? I thought it was giant plants—orchids—you were after," exclaimed San Pedro.