“We ought to be able to get our laundry cleaned cheap,” said Billy, with a feeble attempt at a joke. “Where there are so many Chinamen, the competition in the laundry business must be fierce.”
“There’s just a bare possibility that we’ll get out of here before we get that far,” said Bobby. “Don’t give up hope so easily, Billy.”
“Hope and I are strangers just at present,” answered Billy, lugubriously. “Be sure you have my bawth waiting for me when I wake up, James.”
“The only bath you’ll get will be if this tub springs a leak, and then you may get more than you’re looking for,” Fred assured him.
“Well, don’t let me be disturbed, no matter what happens,” said Billy. “Just take something and mop it up, and don’t bother me about it. Good night, fellow Argonauts.”
“Oh, go to sleep and don’t call us names,” said Mouser, and Billy obeyed orders to the letter.
The boys had no means of keeping track of the time, and the hours followed each other in an endless procession. They had plenty to eat, but when four days had passed they would have given anything they owned to be out of that stifling hold and up on the clean, windswept decks. They had almost given up hope of this, when suddenly there was the sound of footsteps on the deck far above their heads and the scraping sound of a hatch being removed.
CHAPTER XI
A GLEAM OF LIGHT
A broad ray of sunshine came streaming into the hold and the four boys gave a shout of joy at the sight. Bobby made for the ladder that led up toward the hatchway, and the others followed close at his heels.