im with a second hard right to the point of the chin.

The German commander reeled backward. Jack followed up his advantage, and
for the space of a minute played a tattoo on the man's face with both
fists. Then he stepped back, and as the German came toward him, the lad
muttered:

"I guess this has gone far enough. Now for the finish."

He started a blow almost from the deck, and putting his full force behind
it, struck.

"Crack!"

The blow could be heard even aboard the Ventura, which had approached
close by this time.

The German commander seemed to stagger back all of ten paces, the British
sailors scurrying back to keep out of his way. Then the man fell, his head
striking the deck with a sickening thud.

"There," said Jack, "I guess that will settle you. Tie him up, men."

A wild cheer had burst from the sailors as Jack delivered the finishing
touch. None of these men had ever seen Jack in action before, and it was
only natural that they should be greatly impressed at this exhibition of
their commander's prowess.

"By glory! What a blow!" one of them exclaimed. "Did you see it, Tom?"

"Did I?" exclaimed the man addressed as Tom; "did I? I'll say I did, and I
thought I was pretty handy with my fists. But not against Captain Jack,
not for me."

As bidden by Jack, the sailors rolled the German commander over and bound
him. Then they carried him to the Essex's launch and threw him in, none
too gently, either, for there was no man there who had not a disgust for
Germans, German tactics and everything German.

"Now," said Frank to Jack, "I guess we may as well stand clear and let the
Essex pour a few shells into the vessel, eh?"

Jack shook his head.

"No," he said, "we shall take possession of the vessel. Call down below
and see if the Germans will surrender."

Frank approached the conning tower and called down.

"Hello!" he shouted.

There was no response.

"Hello below!" he shouted again in German.

"What do you want?" came a sullen voice from below.

"We're in possession of this vessel now," said Frank. "Come up here and
surrender."

"We'll stay where we are," came the reply after a brief pause.

"But you can't man," exclaimed Frank. "Don't you know when you have been
captured."

"We'll stay here awhile," said the spokesman of the sailors.

"But you can't stay there forever, and you can't submerge," said Frank.
"Come up and surrender."

To this the lad received no response. Frank repor