With the words he stepped aside among the trees that bordered the road; and the goblin ran to the door of the hut and kicked upon it. There was silence in the cabin for several moments; then the door screaked on its hinges and slowly swung open. The old man and old woman were both there; but as soon as they caught sight of the green little being, they were more frightened than they had been at sight of the giant. With a great flirting of skirts and shaking of trousers, they leaped right over the goblin’s head and sped away to the fields again, yelling lustily. Fitz Mee rolled upon the ground, laughing immoderately; and Bob joined in his companion’s merriment. However, he called to him: “Throw the gold upon the floor—and come on; they’ll find it, if they ever pluck up courage to come back to their house. Come on; we’ve got to hurry.” The boy-giant caught up his wee comrade and ran as fast as he could toward the place where he had hid the balloon. The sounds of pursuit were close behind them. Into the woods Bob dashed and crashed; and soon he stood beside the air-vessel. “Open the satchel and get me a gob-tab—quick!” he bellowed to Fitz, tossing him into the basket. “A gob-tab?” squeaked Fitz. “Yes—quick!” “_One_ won’t do you any good.” “Huh!” “No; you’ll have to take a half-dozen. Here they are.” “Have I got to swallow all those pills?” “Yes, down ’em—and be nimble about it.” “Well, I _won’t_!” “Now, Bob!” coaxingly. “I won’t!” stubbornly. “You _know_ I don’t like pills!” “Bob, you’ll get us into trouble.” “I don’t care. I’d rather get into trouble than have trouble get into me; and that’s what pills are—trouble.” Just then came a loud rattling and crashing of the underbrush; and a large number of men and boys and dogs burst into the little open space and surrounded the two adventurers. “Surrender!” cried the mayor. “Get out!” roared the boy-giant in answer. And he set into kicking the too inquisitive dogs and cuffing the too venturesome men in a strenuous manner that made them fall back to a respectful distance—and in a great hurry. “Untie the balloon!” Bob bawled to his companion. “And give me those gob-tabs!” Fitz Mee did as directed. “Boo! boo! boo!” roared the boy-giant, leaping and dancing awkwardly about. “At ’em again!” commanded the mayor. “But don’t shoot; capture ’em alive!” Again men and boys and dogs began to close in upon the aëronauts. Fitz Mee signalled that the balloon was in readiness. Bob clapped the six gob-tabs into his mouth and hastily swallowed them—making a ridiculously grotesque face that caused his enemies to hesitate in their advance upon him. Then he tried to let out another startling “boo.” It started off all right, big and coarse and awful; but it ended in a tiny dribbling squeak that was so funny that the goblin dropped to the bottom of the car, squirming and laughing. Bob had suddenly shrunk to goblin size. “A miracle!” cried the mayor, crossing himself and retreating.