CHAPTER X.
The Bomb Ketch--A Terrible Missile--Frightful Catastrophe--Diplomacy in Place of War--Peace.
Whenever a war is under way a number of persons on each side are certain to come forward with ingenious schemes for injuring their opponents, through improvements upon the accepted methods of conducting hostilities.

So it came about, after the slight success attained in bombarding Tripoli, that a plan was formulated for creating consternation in the blockaded city and bringing the defiant Bashaw to his senses.
The new scheme was to fix up the _Intrepid_ as a bomb ketch, send her into the harbor at night and there explode her.

While a few had no faith in the plan, others believed it would cause great destruction and spread dismay among the Tripolitans.
In the forward hold were stowed one hundred barrels of gunpowder, and on the deck above were piled one hundred and fifty shells and a lot of shot and scrap iron.

The plan was to give this floating volcano the appearance of a blockade-runner.

Two small boats were taken along, to be used by the crews after setting off the fuse that was to blow the ketch into a million atoms.