But Jack would not be idle while there were any giants left; so be soon set out once more to do battle against them. One day as he passed through a wood he saw a giant dragging a knight and a handsome lady along by their hair. Jack put on his magic coat of darkness, and drawing his sword of sharpness, thrust it into the giant's leg, and gave him such a wound that he fell to the ground, upon which Jack cut his great ugly head off.
The knight and his lady invited Jack to their castle, but he said that before he went he wished to see the giant's den.
"Oh do not go near it!" said the lady. "He has a brother there fiercer and stronger than himself."
But this only made Jack more determined to go. He found the cave easily enough, for the giant was sitting at the mouth of it, with a great spiked club in his hands. Jack ran up and gave him a stab with his sword. The giant could see nobody, but began laying blows all about with his club. Jack easily kept out of the way, and, meanwhile, continued slashing him with his sword until he killed him. Then he cut off his head, and sent it along with his brother's to the king, in a wagon--and a good big wagon-load they made.
Then Jack went to the castle of the knight and the lady. While he was there the news came that Thundel, a savage giant, and a cousin of the two others, was coming to avenge their deaths. Everyone except Jack was filled with terror. He assured them that he would dispose of Thundel, and gave orders that the drawbridge over the moat around the castle should be sawn nearly through, so that it would barely stand, and that a rope with a loop at the end should be made ready. Then, after putting on his shoes of swiftness, he went out to meet the giant. As soon as he came within hearing, Jack began to taunt him, and when the giant started in chase, he ran back to the castle and over the drawbridge, which remained strong enough to support his light weight. But when the giant followed, it crashed beneath him, and down he went in the water. As soon as his head bobbed up, Jack threw the loop of the rope over it, and drew him to the bank and cut his head off.