"I've got that small one I use on the motor of my aeroplane."
"Not any too big," commented Ned. "But it'll have to do. Now, Herc, you watch the stairway while I get busy."
"If any one comes down, shall I tackle them?" asked the freckle-faced youth, who was always ready for a rough-and-tumble.
"Good gracious, no! To arouse their suspicions that we are anything but friendly to them would never do. Just tell me if you hear any one fumbling with the door."
"All right," said Herc, taking up his position at the foot of the stairway.
Ned at once yanked up the section of flooring operated by the ring. By dint of wriggling and twisting, he managed to work himself down into the compartment containing the deadly implements. Then he set to work with his wrench.
The task kept him busy for half an hour or more. When he finally emerged from his cramped quarters into the cabin, he carried something very carefully wrapped in his handkerchief. Whatever it was, he threw it out of the cabin port and breathed a sigh of relief when he had done so. Two more trips were necessary before the flooring was replaced, and each time Ned threw something out.
Herc was about to ask his comrade what he was doing, when the preliminary fumbling at the bolts above warned him that they were about to have a visitor.
Instantly both lads resumed the same positions they had occupied when Herr Muller left the cabin. They had just time to assume them when the man himself opened the companionway doorway and descended.
"Well, have you made up your minds?" he began, without any preliminaries.
"We have," replied Ned. "I'll do as you wish in regard to the plan of the battleship. But you haven't mentioned anything about compensation as yet."
"It will be large. You have my word for that. Isn't that enough?"
Ned, inwardly thinking that it certainly wasn't, agreed that it was.
"I'll get you pencils and paper, and you can set to work right away," said Herr Muller.
But just as he spoke there came a loud crash on deck, and a series of alarmed shouts. Herr Muller turned and sprang quickly back up the stairway. The boys, feeling certain that some calamity had occurred, followed him.
As they gained the deck they were astonished to find that the sloop was out of sight of land. A desolate expanse of gray, tumbling billows was stretched about her. But their glances only dwelt on this for an instant. Their immediate attention was caught by a group in the stern, bending over a prostrate figure.