"But about the giants, which is what I'm interested in most now. Of
course I've had giants in my circuses and museums, from the
beginning. The public wanted 'em and we had to have 'em. Some of 'em
were fakes--men on stilts with long pants to cover up their legs,
and others were the real, genuine, all-wool-and-a-yard-wide article.
But none of them were very big. A shade under eight feet was the
limit with me."

"I also have lots of wild animals, and it was when some of my men
were out after some tapirs, jaguars and leopards that I got on the
track of the giants. It was about a year ago, but up to this time I
haven't seen my way clear to send after the big men. It was this
way:"

Mr. Preston assumed a more comfortable position in his chair, nodded
at Mr. Damon, who was listening attentively to all that was said,
and resumed.

"As I said I had sent Jake Poddington, one of my best men, after
tapirs and some other South American animals. He didn't have very
good luck hunting along the Amazon. In the first place that region
has been pretty well cleaned out of circus animals, and another
thing it's getting too well populated. Another thing is that you
can't get the native hunters and beaters to work for you as they did
years ago."

"So Poddington wrote to me that he was going to take his assistants,
make a big jump, and hike it for the Argentine Republic. He had a
tip that along the Salado river there might be something doing, and
I told him to go ahead."