"If we do we will disclose our identity and it will be all off," said
"Little Mack" in a quandary.
Then Jack had an inspiration.
"Tell them we are having some trouble with our diving rudders and will be along shortly," he offered.
"Little Mack" seized upon the suggestion and acted promptly. In code the mother submarine answered that she was coming to aid. "Let her come; we'll give her a hot reception," said McClure grimly.
As the Bergerhof neared them McClure submerged a little and jockeyed his vessel into position for a sure shot.
This aroused the suspicions of the German and she asked whether the steering apparatus of the U-los had again gone wrong.
"Here is our answer," exclaimed McClure, and catching the big submersible full on the sight of the periscope glass, he released a torpedo.
Their suspicions now fully confirmed the Germans sought vainly to get their vessel under way; but the movement came too late, as the torpedo from the Monitor cleft the waters like an arrow and buried its nose against the hull of the gigantic mother ship just abaft the conning tower. With a mighty roar and a flash that illumined the night the speeding projectile crashed through the hull of the Bergerhof and rent the vessel like so much paper.
"Seems like a pity to put them out of business, don't it?" said
McClure with a tone of wistful regret as he surveyed the picture.
Jack was viewing the whole spectacle through the periscope, his chief
at the observation port in the conning tower.
"We sure did get them," commented Jack. There wasn't the least possibility of the mother ship offering resistance, since it was now a matter of a few minutes at the longest until she would be taking her last dive. So the conning tower of the Monitor was opened and the officers climbed on deck to watch the death struggle of the Bergerhof. The Monitor's torpedo had done its work well, for it was quite evident, as the American craft drew near the scene of the explosion, that the German vessel had been blown out of the water.