Frank seldom gave up heart, but this time he could see no ray of hope. “I’m afraid so. Looks as if we’d be with Li Chang by morning.” “But we don’t want to go to China, Frank!” “We may never get to China, Joe. Didn’t you hear what they said? For all we know, that rascally Chinaman, whoever he is, may heave us overboard when he gets well out in the ocean.” “You fellows shut up,” growled Malloy. “Shut up, I tell you, or I’ll make it hot for you,” and he tapped his revolver suggestively. After that an ominous silence fell between the prisoners. Frank and Joe were downhearted. It looked as if their fate were sealed. CHAPTER XXI QUICK WORK The Hardy boys glanced over at their father on the cot. To their surprise they saw that he was smiling. Frank was on the point of asking him what he found in the situation to smile at when he caught a warning glance. He looked over at the guard. Malloy was not bothering with the prisoners. He was not even looking in their direction. Instead, his head was already beginning to nod, as though he were going to sleep. Snackley had made a poor selection when he chose Malloy as guard. The man had been up the entire previous night helping bring in the shipment of smuggled goods from Li Chang’s vessel, and he had had no sleep that day. He was very tired. Sleep stole upon him without his being aware of it. Several times he straightened up and rubbed his eyes, but eventually he would bow his head again and give in to the luxury of a little doze. In the meantime, Mr. Hardy was busy. He had profited by his previous experience. When the smugglers seized him and attempted to tie him to the bed for the second time he had made use of a trick frequently employed by magicians and professional “escape” artists, who guarantee to escape from ropes and strait-jackets. He had expanded his chest and held his muscles rigid, keeping his arms as far away from his sides as possible, so that later, when he relaxed, he found that the ropes did not bind him as tightly as his captors had intended. This gave him a small leeway. He found that the ropes were especially slack about his right wrist, so he began to work laboriously to free himself. For a long time he thought it would be impossible, and the rope chafed his wrist, but at last he managed to slide his hand free. Joe and Frank watched this performance with amazement, and new hope came into their eyes as they saw their father slowly groping for one of the knots. The detective fumbled at it for a while. It was slow work, for he had but one hand free, but in their haste the smugglers had not tied the knot as firmly as they should, and before long Fenton Hardy had loosened it to such an extent that soon the ends of the rope fell away.