"Not the guy from Sleepy Hollow?" Sabrina said.
"That's him. Since he nearly lost his head, he gave up teaching and became a cop. I guess his idea is that he's safer if he's around the police. He shouldn't be too much of a problem," Puck said, turning in midair and soaring away.
"How did you know that we could get him to do whatever we want if we pretended he's in charge?" Sabrina asked Daphne.
"It's what I do with you," the little girl replied. "You two are exactly the same."
"Carpet, take us to Jack," Sabrina said after she had stuck her tongue out at her sister.
The carpet darted on and glided above the little town. For the first time, Sabrina could see Ferryport Landing for what it really was—quaint. To the east of the town, the moon shone on the curve of the Hudson River, and old gas lamps lined the paths of a park along the water. More lights twinkled in the center of the town, where dozens of brownstone buildings clustered around
Main Street
. Sabrina could see people having a late supper in the railway-car diner and a last movie playing at the drive-in theater. Far off to the west of town, she could just make out the humped shapes of the tree-blanketed mountains.
As they got closer to
Main Street
, the carpet began to descend, dropping nearly a dozen feet at once and causing Sabrina's belly to flip. She looked at her sister and saw that she had wrapped her arms around Elvis and was squeezing the air out of the poor dog. They plummeted through the clouds, the girls screaming as the wind screeched past them, but just as they were feet from crashing onto the pavement, Sabrina managed to shout "Carpet, STOP!" and the carpet screeched to a halt. It took them several moments to realize that they hadn't died and that they were still screaming.
When they had calmed down, Sabrina looked around and saw that they were floating next to the window of a brick building. It had bars on it. Suddenly, a boyish-looking head with spiky blond hair appeared. It was Jack! He had beautiful blue eyes and a round face with a button nose, but he looked tired and in desperate need of a shave. He also had a painful-looking fat lip that had specks of dried blood around it.
"What is going on out there? Can't a man get some rest when he's in prison?" he shouted in a thick English accent. When he saw the girls, he lifted himself higher in order to see what they were standing on. Then he smiled.
"Well, young ladies. Who might you be?"
"Are you Jack?" Sabrina asked.
"That's the name I was given," he replied with a chuckle.
"The Jack?" Daphne asked. "As in 'Jack and the Beanstalk'?"
"Indeed I am, duck. But as you can see, I'm a little indisposed to be signing autographs." He laughed.
"We need your help!" Daphne cried.
"Well, I don't know if you happened to have noticed, but this isn't a country club I'm relaxing in. This is the county jail. Unless you need some help making license plates, I think you've got the wrong bloke."
"We need your help with a giant," Sabrina said.
Jack's eyes grew wide and a smile briefly lit up his features. Then he grew terribly serious and pulled his face closer to the bars.
"A giant, you said?"
"He's taken our grandmother," Sabrina replied.
"And we want her back!" Daphne added.
"Well, I don't blame you," the young man said. "But exactly how does a human go about getting themselves in trouble with a giant?"
"We're Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. Our grandmother is . . ."
"Relda Grimm," Jack interrupted with a smirk. "I should have guessed. Went and got herself in trouble with a big boy, eh?"
"Yes, she and Mr. Canis both," Daphne said.
"Canis, eh? Can't say I feel sorry about that," Jack growled. "So what do you want from me?"
"We were told you were an expert on giants," Sabrina answered. "We need you to tell us everything you can about how to stop this one and save our family."
"It's true, I am an expert on the big boys. Killed nearly fifty of them in my day," Jack boasted.
"The books said it was less than twenty," Daphne said.
"Don't believe everything you read, duck," said Jack. "I've sent more than my fair share of big boys to the grave. Why, there was a time when people used to call me Jack the Giant Killer. I was famous, oh yes. My name was once synonymous with bravery and daring. That was until the spell that trapped me in this barmy town."
"What does barmy mean?" Daphne whispered to her sister.
Sabrina shrugged. She was having trouble keeping up with Jack's accent.
"Now I'm taking any work I can. Do you know what the mighty Jack does for a living?"