“Didn’t a man in the boat see him, neither, sir—so they say; and, bein’ sailor men, ’tain’t likely they’d lie about it, sir.”
Decatur and Macdonough, charmed with this state of affairs, could hardly refrain from winking at one another; but Decatur only said: “Very well, Dixon; if he says he’s an American, mind, we’ll keep him.”
“He’ll say so, sir,” answered Danny, making no effort at all to suppress his enjoyment.
Good luck followed good luck. Within ten minutes the rattle of hoisting out a boat from the Thunderer was heard, and in a little while it was seen pulling across the dark water in which the stars were faintly reflected. The man’s getting into the American boat had been suspected, and his absence discovered. But no midshipman had been sent after him. Lieutenant Lockyer, the officer who had been so rude to Macdonough, and who, in spite of his bad manners, was a young officer of experience and determination, was sent in the first cutter. As soon as he stepped on deck Decatur greeted him politely, but all the other officers maintained an unbroken silence. Lockyer began at once, in a dictatorial manner:
“One of our men, sir, Moriarity by name, slipped into your boat a bit ago, and is probably on board now, and I have come to request, in Captain Lockyer’s name, that this man be delivered to me.”
Lockyer’s “request” sounded very much like “demand.”
“Certainly,” replied Decatur, with much suavity. “If the man acknowledges himself a British subject, he shall be delivered to you at once, to be punished as a deserter. But it is the rule in the American navy to take the word of the man in question respecting his citizenship, upon which he is likely to be the person best informed.”
This rule was improvised for the occasion, but Decatur was not the man to be taken at a disadvantage, and he quoted Captain Lockyer’s words to Macdonough with a sarcastic emphasis that was infuriating to the young lieutenant.
Decatur then turned to Danny Dixon and said, “Bring the man Moriarity on deck, if he is on the ship.”
Danny touched his hat, and in a few moments appeared with a young sailor, of splendid physique, but with a bright red head, and the first word he uttered was in a brogue that could be cut with a knife.