“We’ve got another plan about those three prisoners,” put in a fellow who had not yet spoken. “I think it would work out grand.”
“What plan?” questioned the chief smuggler briefly.
“We’ve been talking about Li Chang.”
“What about him?”
“Turn ’em over to Li Chang. He’s sailing back to China in the morning. Have ’em put on board his ship.”
Snackley scratched his head for a moment. Evidently the idea caught his fancy.
“Not bad,” he muttered. “I hadn’t thought of Li Chang. Yes, he’d be able to look after them. He’d see to it that they never returned,” and he grinned grimly.
“He’d probably dump ’em overboard before they got to China at all,” declared Redhead smugly. “Li Chang doesn’t like to feed passengers if they can be got rid of.”
“So much the better. We won’t be responsible.”
“Leave it to Li Chang. The old villain would just like to have three white men in his power. He’ll attend to them.”
Snackley reached over and picked up the document from the floor, where it had fallen in the struggle. He glanced at it and then tore it into pieces.
“We won’t need this. You’ve lost your chance, Hardy. If you had signed it you would have been free by now. But you’ll never be free—not with three of you knowing our secret. It’s too risky. You’ll all be turned over to Li Chang. He brought in a little cargo this week and his ship is to sail in the morning. You will go with him.”
Fenton Hardy was silent. He had resolved not to plead for his own safety.
“Well,” said Snackley, “haven’t you anything to say?”
“Nothing. Do as you wish with me. But let the boys go.”
“We’ll stick with you, dad,” said Frank quickly.
“We sure will!” added Joe.
“You certainly will,” declared Snackley. “I’m not going to let one of you have the chance of getting back to Bayport with your story.”
The chief of the smugglers stood in the center of the room for a while, contemplating his captives with a bitter smile. Then he turned suddenly on his heel.
“Well, they’re safe enough,” he said to Redhead. “We have that business with Burke to attend to. You two,” he said, speaking to two of his men, “had better go down to the cove and take the rowboat out. Signal to Li Chang that we need the motorboat sent in at once. The rest of you come and help load Burke’s truck. If any nosey policeman came along and found it in the lane we’d be done for.”
“How about them?” asked Redhead, indicating the prisoners.
“They’re safe enough. But I guess we’d better leave one guard, anyway. Malloy, you stay here and keep watch.”
Malloy, a surly and truculent fellow in overalls and a ragged sweater, nodded and sat down on a box near the door. This arrangement seemed to satisfy Snackley, and after warning Malloy not to fall asleep on the job and to see to it that the prisoners did not escape, he left the room, followed by Redhead and the other smugglers, with the exception of two who left by the other door. Their footsteps could be heard as they went down the flight of stairs leading to the bottom of the cliff.
A heavy silence fell over the room after the departure of the smugglers. Malloy crouched gloomily on the box, gazing blankly at the floor. The butt of a revolver projected from his hip pocket.
Frank strained against the ropes that bound him to the chair. But the smugglers had done their task well. He could scarcely budge.
“We’re done for, I guess,” he heard Joe say.
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.
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 straitjackets. 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
