Once Edgar was truly settled, he began to explore the giant’s mouth in search of a way out. Though he did not tell Meagan this was what he was doing, he suspected she was able to guess. Not that it made any difference. He could find no way of escape. His greatest hope had been to climb out of the giant’s mouth while he was sleeping. But the moist walls of his lips were too slick to climb easily. Twice Edgar tried using the pickax to help him make the climb, but both times this caused the giant to rub his mouth, with results that were nearly fatal. (The second time, he barely made it back to Meagan’s tooth, where she set his broken bones but gave him no sympathy for the pain that kept him awake for seven nights running.)

It was like being at the bottom of a well: easy enough to fall in, impossible to climb out.

Despite his misadventures at the front of the giant’s mouth, Edgar continued his explorations, until he had at last reached the most distant of the giant’s molars. He carried a torch with him, which he lit and waved to Meagan when he reached the far side.

When he returned from that trip, he was burning with a new idea. “If we string a rope directly across the center of his mouth, we might have better luck snagging things as they go by,” he said.

“The giant would rip it out,” replied Meagan.

“Well, what if we didn’t make it permanent? We could put in a couple of hooks or pegs or something, one on each side of his mouth, and run the rope between them when we wanted to use it.”

“Might work,” said Meagan dubiously. “We’d have to put the pegs in the upper teeth, though; if we try it with the lower ones he’s sure to snap it with his tongue right away.”

The next day Edgar again made his way to the far side of the giant’s mouth. As he traveled, he tucked a rope into the narrow trench that ran along the edge of the teeth.

He made the trip without incident, except for one frightening moment when he was at the front of the mouth and the giant happened to make a clucking sound. The violent forward movement of his whalelike tongue had almost flattened Edgar.

After some searching, Edgar found an upper tooth with a small hole, into which he pounded a peg. Then he waved his torch to Meagan to let her know he was going to take up the slack on the rope.

Once they had the rope tight, he swung himself onto it. Then, moving hand over hand, he inched his way toward the center of the giant’s mouth.