“But the danger!” cried Tom Flynn.
“Bah! There is no danger!” exclaimed the insane commander. “You will be as safe at the bottom of the sea as here. Now remember—this ends all objections! You will do as I say! I am going to the pilot house, to run my boat from there. And I want my every order and signal obeyed promptly. That will be all.”
He turned abruptly on his heel, and went out. The men looked after him with anger on their faces, while Jerry showed not a little fear.
“Well, that settles it!” exclaimed Ted, in a low voice. “We both gave him a chance to back down, and let us out,” he said to the tall lad. “He refused. Now we’ll take matters into our own hands, and he’ll have to stand the consequences. We’re all agreed on that?” and he looked questioningly at his companions.
“Sure—certainly,” they answered.
“Then you can tell your friends,” went on Ted to Jerry. “We’ll make the captain a prisoner, and we’ll be justified in law—if we ever get to where there are laws again.”
“What about his two German friends?” asked Jerry.
“Don’t worry about them. If we have to we can secure them too, but all we’ll have to do will be to lock them in their room, with pencils and papers, and they’ll start figuring on how long they’ll be likely to remain there, or how much the sun weighs, or how long it would take the submarine to get there. That will dispose of them. Meanwhile we’ll turn this ship about and sail for home.”
“And when—when shall we make the—attack?” asked Jerry.
“As soon as he gives an order to send this boat any deeper in the ocean,” answered Ted promptly. “That will be the signal. She is now running as deep as is safe,” and he glanced at the gage on the wall of the engine room. “The minute he signals to fill the ballast tanks more, and send her down, we’ll attack him in the pilot house. Better go tell your friends what our plan is,” he concluded to Jerry.