As Jack Creamer’s claim of having captured Mahomet Rous was a joke in the whole squadron, Pickle did not feel Decatur’s remark as any encouragement. So he turned to Somers, and said earnestly:
“Well, Captain Somers, if Captain Decatur won’t let me go with him——”
“That’s very ungrateful of Decatur, too,” interrupted Somers, quite seriously, “considering the way you and Macdonough came to our assistance the night of our adventure with the brigands at Syracuse. And Macdonough is going in the boats.”
Here Decatur, seeing that the little midshipman was really in earnest, thought they had amused themselves at his expense quite enough; so he said kindly:
“Now, Mr. Israel, let us talk common sense. You are as brave a little fellow as ever stepped—both Captain Somers and I know that—but you could be picked up and thrown overboard like a handspike by any full-grown man. Macdonough is several years older than you, and as strong and able to take care of himself as any lieutenant in the squadron. Never you mind, though. Just as soon as your body grows up to your spirit, you will have your chance at distinction.”
“And then,” added Somers, looking at the boy with a strange interest, “every officer who has a desperate enterprise on hand will want you.”
Poor Pickle had to go back on the Constitution fortified only by this promise.
James Decatur, Stephen’s younger brother, was put in Somers’s division, which consisted of three gunboats, while Decatur’s consisted also of three boats, and each was armed with a single long twenty-four-pounder. The two friends had spent many days and weeks in perfecting their plans, and when, at noon on the 3d of August, the Constitution flung out the signal of battle, each knew exactly what was to be done.
It was a beautiful August day, and the white-walled city, with its circle of grim forts, its three smart cruisers lying under the guns of the castle, crowned with heavy mortars, and its fleet of gunboats, manned by sailors in quaint costumes, made a beautiful and imposing picture. The American fleet looked small to grapple with such a force, but, although it was estimated as about one to five of the Tripolitans’ force, every man went into action with a coolness and determination not to be excelled.
At half past twelve o’clock the Constitution ran in, with a good breeze, about three miles from the town. She wore ship, with her head off the land, and signaled to the brigs, schooners, gunboats, and bomb vessels to prepare for the attack, and at the same moment the frigate herself was cleared for action.