“Hankos, which is the name of the king, was for many years a student of science.  He longed to see where the big stream of upward spurting water went, and wanted to know whence came the down-pouring one.  So he undertook a daring experiment.

“He constructed a great cylinder, and, keeping his plans a secret, conveyed it to the spouting water, entered it, and, by means of pulleys and levers, after he had shut himself inside, cast himself into the up-shooting column.  He took along compressed air cylinders to supply an atmosphere he could breathe, and some food to eat, for it appears our giant friends are something of inventors in their way.  The current of water bore him to the surface of the earth, and he was cast up on the ocean, in what was probably taken for a waterspout if any one saw it.

“Then a strange thing happened.  No sooner did Hankos open his cylinder, which served him as a boat, than he lost his gigantic size, owing to the difference of the two atmospheres.  He became almost of the same size as ourselves, except that his skin hung in great folds on him, and he seemed like a wrinkled old man.  His clothes too, were a world too large.

“He had a terrible time before he reached shore, and a hard one after it, for his strange appearance turned almost every one against him.  He was sorry he had ventured to solve the mystery of the up-shooting stream of water, for he was worse than an outcast.

“Then he began to plan to get back to his own inner world.  But he could not find the downward stream, and, not knowing the language of the countries where he landed, he had no means of ascertaining.  He traveled from place to place, always seeking for something that would lead him back to his own country.

“Finally he heard of us, and of our ship, though how I do not know, as I thought I had kept it a great secret.  By almost superhuman struggles he made his way to our island.  He says he concealed himself aboard the Mermaid the night before we sailed, but I hardly believe it possible.  It seems——­”

“He did it, for I saw him!” interrupted Mark.

“You saw him!” cried Mr. Henderson.

Then Mark told of the many things that had puzzled him so, how he had seen the queer figure slinking aboard the boat, of the disappearance of food from time to time, and of the strange noises in the storeroom.

“That bears out what he told me,” the professor said.  “Hankos says he used to steal out nights and take what food he could get, and he also mentions some one, answering to Mark’s description, who nearly discovered him once as he hurried back into the apartment.

“However, it seems to be true, since Mark confirms it.  At any rate Hankos stayed in hiding, and made the entire trip with us, and, just as we all became overcome with the strange gas he escaped, having begun to expand to his original giant size, and being unable to remain any longer in his cramped quarters.”