'I can't,' he said regretfully. 'It's no use promising what you can't do.' 'Ah, poor fellow, bound for a term of years, I suppose! Well, here's my card; when your time's up come to me.' 'I will - if I'm the same size then,' said Robert truthfully. 'If you grow a bit, so much the better,' said the gentleman. When he had gone, Robert beckoned Cyril and said: 'Tell them I must and will have an easy. And I want my tea.' Tea was provided, and a paper hastily pinned on the tent. It said: CLOSED FOR HALF AN HOUR WHILE THE GIANT GETS HIS TEA Then there was a hurried council. 'How am I to get away?' said Robert. 'I've been thinking about it all the afternoon.' 'Why, walk out when the sun sets and you're your right size. They can't do anything to us.' Robert opened his eyes. 'Why, they'd nearly kill us,' he said, 'when they saw me get my right size. No, we must think of some other way. We MUST be alone when the sun sets.' 'I know,' said Cyril briskly, and he went to the door, outside which Bill was smoking a clay pipe and talking in a low voice to 'Becca. Cyril heard him say - 'Good as havin' a fortune left you.' 'Look here,' said Cyril, 'you can let people come in again in a minute. He's nearly finished his tea. But he must be left alone when the sun sets. He's very queer at that time of day, and if he's worried I won't answer for the consequences.' 'Why - what comes over him?' asked Bill. 'I don't know; it's - it's a sort of a change,' said Cyril candidly. 'He isn't at all like himself - you'd hardly know him. He's very queer indeed. Someone'll get hurt if he's not alone about sunset.' This was true. 'He'll pull round for the evening, I s'pose?' 'Oh yes - half an hour after sunset he'll be quite himself again.' 'Best humour him,' said the woman. And so, at what Cyril judged was about half an hour before sunset, the tent was again closed 'whilst the giant gets his supper'. The crowd was very merry about the giant's meals and their coming so close together. 'Well, he can pick a bit,' Bill owned. 'You see he has to eat hearty, being the size he is.' Inside the tent the four children breathlessly arranged a plan of retreat. 'You go NOW,' said Cyril to the girls, 'and get along home as fast as you can. Oh, never mind the beastly pony-cart; we'll get that to-morrow. Robert and I are dressed the same. We'll manage somehow, like Sydney Carton did. Only, you girls MUST get out, or it's all no go. We can run, but you can't - whatever you may think. No, Jane, it's no good Robert going out and knocking people down. The police would follow him till he turned his proper size, and then arrest him like a shot. Go you must! If you don't, I'll never speak to you again. It was you got us into this mess really, hanging round people's legs the way you did this morning. Go, I tell you!' And Jane and Anthea went.