Ching Chong saw there was no help for him then.
He spurned the bag of gold and precious stones, pushing it with his foot, as he followed the giant into the inner cave.
The giant ordered him to build a fire, and prepare supper, and, after the master was served, he was permitted to eat and go to sleep upon the rough but warm skin of a grizzly bear.
Weeks passed by! Still he was a prisoner in the cavern, serving the grim old giant, who was very capricious, and hard to please.
One evening he came home in great good humor, and, while he ate his supper, he talked and laughed with Ching Chong very pleasantly.
He told how that day he had given a quantity of gold to some miners.
"Great luck it will bring them," he added.
"Already they are quarreling over it," and a malicious grin disfigured his monstrous face.
"'Tis such fools as you, boy, who make things lively. Ha! ha! You may have all the gold you can carry away!
"Why don't you move the stone? Ah! boy, if you had the famous divining-rod, you would only have to touch the rock, and it would obey your wish, but you might as well hope to wake up in your beloved China, as to obtain it."