Discussing this phase of the situation, Captain McClure had just decided to make a quick ascension to the surface and take his chances on freeing the Monitor of her entanglements before a German warship could come up; but at that moment Bonte reported from the wireless room the approach of a vessel to port, coming up at full speed.
"Looks as though we are always running into hard luck," said McClure disgustedly.
Jack tried hard to see the bright side of the situation, but had to confess to himself that things did look rather black for the Monitor and her men. Nevertheless the boy figured to himself that surely there was some way in which Yankee wit and ingenuity could baffle the craftiness of the Germans.
"What are we going to do?" asked Ted as Jack joined him in the torpedo chamber.
"Haven't quite figured out yet, chum," answered his old Brighton roommate. "I'll confess that things don't look very rosy for us, but I'm not going to give up, nor will 'Little Mack' give up, until we have thought this thing over for awhile."
They strolled from the torpedo chamber into the compartment fitted out as the men's quarters and there came upon the party of German prisoners lounging in their bunks, chatting in their own language. Jack could understand one of them as speculating on the next move of the Americans. In their midst sat their captain, Hans Schmidt, from Bremen, he had told them. Jack paused and looked them over for a moment ruefully.
"I suppose they are chuckling to themselves over our luck and thinking how nicely they will escape when we go up above and hand ourselves over as prisoners of war," suggested Ted.
"No doubt, chum, and they probably have the laugh on us right this time," answered Jack solemnly.
But as he surveyed the prisoners again there came to him a sudden inspiration born out of the needs of the moment, a brilliant idea that sent him running into the control chamber and up into the conning tower where his captain sat alone trying to solve his problem.
"I have it; I have it," he shouted as he grasped the hand of his chief.
And then for five minutes the boy unfolded his daring plan.