“You know what is planned for four nights from this? Remembering that this may be my last request of you, I ask you, therefore, to go to Commodore Preble, and not to sully by one single act of disobedience the glorious record you have made.”
The appeal touched Decatur deeply, and he could not say No. Somers went with him to the cabin door, saw him enter, and the door close after him.
Fifteen minutes passed, and Decatur did not return. Somers, whose anxiety was by no means over when he had brought these two impetuous spirits together, began to be very unhappy. He walked back and forth, uncertain what to do; but at last, remembering that his rank gave him the right to seek the commodore even when not sent for, and taking his courage in both hands, he knocked gently at the cabin door. No reply was made, but he ventured to open the door slightly.
Seated near each other were the gray-haired commodore and his young captain, both in tears. Somers, softly closing the door, moved off without being noticed. Half an hour later, when the commodore appeared, he was leaning affectionately upon Decatur’s arm.
CHAPTER VI.
And now, after a series of heroic ventures which had raised the American name to the highest point of honor, was to come another—the last, the most glorious, and the most melancholy of them all. Three officers and ten men enlisted in this enterprise, and offered the choice between life and honor, each one of them chose the better part.
It had been known for some time that, as the season would soon compel the American squadron to leave Tripoli for the winter, Commodore Preble was anxious that one great and decisive blow might be struck before he left. True, the Bashaw was anxious to negotiate, but Commodore Preble was not the man to treat with pirates and brigands as long as four hundred American captives were imprisoned in Tripolitan dungeons. He was the more anxious to strike this great blow because he had discovered that the Tripolitans were almost out of gunpowder—a commodity which, at that time of general European warfare, was of much value and not always easy to get. The Americans, though, were well supplied, and this put the thought into Somers’s mind of attempting a desperate assault upon the shipping and forts by means of a fire-ship, or “infernal.”
He first broached the plan to Decatur, the night after the last attack on Tripoli. The two young captains were sitting in the cabin of the Nautilus, Decatur having come in answer to a few significant words from Somers. When the two were seated at the table, Somers unfolded his plan.
It was a desperate one, and as Somers lucidly explained it, Decatur felt a strange sinking of the heart. Somers, on the contrary, seemed to feel a restrained enthusiasm, as if he had just attained a great opportunity, for which he had long hoped and wished.
“You see,” said Somers, leaning over the table and fixing a pair of smiling dark eyes upon Decatur, “it is an enterprise that means liberty to four hundred of our countrymen and messmates. Who could hesitate a moment?”