“No,” I says, surprised, for I’d never heard of it before.
“He was, but f-father was out of town. He didn’t git no satisfaction.”
“I bet he’s sneakin’ around Wicksville just a-tryin’ to gouge that invention out of your father,” I says.
Mark didn’t answer, and sat so quiet I turned to look at him to see what was the matter. He was sitting stiff, leaning forward a little and staring at the face of a big rock half-way down the hill. There was a shadow on it, and it was the shadow of a man’s head.
The moon was shining bright and throwing shadows just like it did the night before. I noticed now that a big shadow was right over us, reaching down the hill to the rock, where it ended in the head. It looked big as an elephant. Mark sucked in his breath, and we looked at each other. Then we both turned slow and looked up the hill. There, crouching on the brow, was the black figure of a man, like he was on his hands and knees staring over at us. His head stood out sharp, and we could see his hair was long and bushy, standing out on all sides just like some kind of South Sea Island savages that there are pictures of in the geography. There wasn’t any doubt about his being big. It was the whoppingest head I ever saw, and the shoulders matched it for size.
All of a sudden as we looked the man wasn’t there. It seemed like he melted right away under our eyes, and we never heard a sound.
“It was—nothing but a man,” I whispered, trying to persuade myself there wasn’t any danger.
“Yes,” Mark whispered back, “but what k-kind of a man?”
When we got to thinking about his size and how long and bushy his hair was, and especially about that queer footmark with the toes pointing to one side, we couldn’t make head or tail of him, except that there was something mighty strange, and that it would be a good thing to keep out of his way. I tell you it wasn’t fun sitting there a couple of miles from a house, without a gun, and with a giant of a man like that prowling around watching you and intending to do nobody knew what.
“Shall we tell the others?” I asked.