Tyler took the card from him. The comrades of both men closed in.
"It'll be a duel," said Reuben, in great disgust, "and our lad will go up against that killer! Why didn't he decide to let us settle it with our fists?"
As the two parties separated, Reuben glanced towards another part of the lobby. "What ho," he exclaimed, "there's Lieutenant Decatur looking on! He'd have taken part in the affair, you can bet your boots!"
Stephen Decatur, first lieutenant of the Constitution, followed the midshipman out of the theatre. We saw him approach Bainbridge and draw him away from the other middies, who were as flustered as hens.
We learned later that the meeting was to be on the beach the next day at nine o'clock. You may be sure that every man Jack of us was on the lookout to see if Lieutenant Decatur intended to permit Bainbridge to go ashore. When we saw them go off together in the cutter there was little work done among the crew. It looked to us as if the midshipman was on his way to sure death, and we decided that Decatur was going to seek a way out of the quarrel for the lad.
Reuben shook his head. "That would be against the honor of the United States' navy. Decatur may give him a lesson or two in duelling, but he'll see the thing through. They're leaving the ship a full hour and a half before the time set—I'll wager there'll be pistol practice somewhere."
About half-past nine a boat put out from the shore. There were two officers in it and both sat upright and chatted to each other. Could it be that——?
An hour later, young Bainbridge told us what had happened. Decatur, as the second of Bainbridge, had chosen pistols at four paces. Tyler's second objected. "This looks like murder, sir!" he said to Decatur.