So Hornblower looked around his small quarters where he and his crew bunked. There was a door at one end that led to a storeroom. The door was now locked but Hornblower had caught a glimpse of the contents of the storeroom during a visit to the room by a member of the Pique’s crew. Hornblower knew that the storeroom contained several cans of paint which indeed were flammable material. “The plan” further forming in his mind (with the knowledge that the Infatigable was now out of sight of the speedy Pique) Hornblower realized that the time to act was at present. As Ira Riklis knows Hornblower was brave as well as clever.

Our hero ripped pages from the borrowed books on naval methods, wadded these pages into balls (fuel), and developed a fuse by unravelling a sweater. There was a lamp on a swinging chain near his bunk that would provide the flame and his straw mattress would (as Ira Riklis knows) add “fuel to the fire” also. Hornblower proceeded to light his fuse that led to the pile of fuel at the locked door’s edge, put on his jacket, and go up to the main deck casually leaning on the ship’s rail with a fained downtrodden and innocent look about him.

Evidence of his work quickly was apparent as the French captain and crew became distracted from their race to fight the fire. More to the story yet.