He did not have long to wait. Soon he heard the giant and his brother talking and grumbling together as they came up the road to the castle. He waited until they had reached the doorway and were directly under the window. Then he dropped the slip noose over both their heads. Quickly snatching up the other end of the rope he pulled with all his might and drew the two giants up into the air, struggling and kicking. He then leaned from the window and with his sword he cut off both their heads.
It did not take him long after that to slide down the rope and get the keys that hung from Blunderbore’s belt. With these in his hand he reëntered the castle and went all through it, unlocking door after door.
He opened the giant’s treasure-chamber and found it full of gold and silver and jewels and all sorts of precious stuffs that had been stolen from the people of the land, for Blunderbore was a great robber.
In the dungeons under the castle were many merchants and noblemen and fair ladies whom the giant had robbed and kept as prisoners.
When these people found that Jack had come to free them, and that he had killed the giant, they were so glad and grateful that there was nothing they would not have done for the lad. Some of them wept for joy.
Jack led them to the treasure-chamber and bade them take all they could carry of the treasures that were there. They would gladly have left it all for him, but the lad would have none of it.
“No, no,” he said. “I have no need of riches, and if I were loaded down with gold and silver I could not travel about so lightly as I do.”
He bade the grateful people good-by and journeyed on his way, leaving them to find their own way home, which, no doubt they all did in good time.
By evening of the next day Jack was well away from Blunderbore’s forest, and just as he was wondering where he should find food and shelter for the night he came to a great house and saw a light shining from the windows.
He knocked, and the door was opened to him by a giant with two heads. This giant was quite as wicked as either Cormoran or Blunderbore, but he was very sly and cunning. Instead of seizing Jack and throwing him into a dungeon he made him welcome. He set a hot supper before him, and talked with him pleasantly, and after awhile he showed the lad to a room where he could sleep.