And then he was suddenly aware of a sickish, heavy odor in the
chamber. The window had been closed. But it was something more
than stale air that Tom smelled.

A folded cloth lay on the floor beside the couch. The young
fellow saw at once that it had been originally placed over the
giant's face, but had slid off. And lucky for Koku that it had
been dislodged!

"Chloroform!" muttered Tom. "He's drugged. It is no wonder he
did not hear the burglar alarm."

In any event, the incident made one deep impression on Tom's
mind. The spies who he believed were working for the Hendrickton
& Western Railroad and its owner, Montagne Lewis, were desperate
men. Tom could not believe that the fellow with the big feet was
alone in Shopton and was unaided in his attempts to find out what
Tom was doing.

This attempt to burglarize the house betrayed the caliber of
the enemy. In chloroforming Koku he had taken the risk of
murdering the giant. Only the fact that the pad of saturated
cloth had fallen off Koku's face had, perhaps, saved the man from
suffocation.

Tom did not tell the giant when he aroused what the matter with
him was. Koku was ill enough! He was wrenched by interior spasms
that seemed almost to tear his huge body to pieces.