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Chapter 9: The Scarlet Deluge
Paul Revere organizes a spy system made up of master artisans and their apprentices to keep a watch on the British forces in Boston. The purpose of the spy system is to alert any outlying towns if the soldiers appear to be advancing in their direction. Lydia gives Johnny the shreds of some aborted letters that Lieutenant Stranger had drafted to Lavinia Lyte. The letters reveal valuable information about the movements of British troops. -
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The Scarlet Deluge
Johnny discovers that many of the British regulars are actually Whigs. One of them, Pumpkin, asks for Johnny’s help in deserting his post. He dreams of owning his own farm, a dream he has no chance of fulfilling in England. Johnny gives Pumpkin a farmer’s smock sewn by his mother before she died and arranges to have him smuggled out of Boston. In return, Pumpkin gives Johnny his musket and his old uniform. Johnny gives the musket to Rab. Pumpkin is caught and executed. desertion by the Britis -
Chapter 10: ‘Disperse, Ye Rebels!’
Rab is convinced that fighting will break out before the week is over, so he also leaves Boston to report for duty in Lexington. He explains to Johnny that once fighting begins, the British will not allow any man to leave the city of Boston for fear that he will join the rebel forces. Rab seems to feel no grief and only excitement about leaving, but Johnny is devastated by his friend’s departure. -
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‘Disperse, Ye Rebels!’
In April, the Whigs sense that the British are planning to take some military action. Paul Revere and Doctor Warren arrange to warn the outlying Massachusetts towns of the British troops’ movements by using lantern signals from the spire of Christ’s Church. While Johnny listens to Revere and Warren hash out their plan, he drifts off to sleep and has a frightening dream. In his dream he sees himself boiling lobsters with human eyes and beside him are John Hancock and Samuel Adams. -
Yankee Doodle
When Johnny wakes up, Doctor Warren tells him about the events that occurred in Lexington. A handful of rebels were killed, but Doctor Warren does not know their names. Johnny instantly thinks about Rab. Doctor Warren heads to Lexington to tend to the wounded, and Johnny asks to come along. The doctor tells him to stay in Boston and spend the day collecting information, then slip out across the Charles at night to find him and relay what he has gathered. -
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Yanee Doodle
Outside in the streets of Boston, no one knows that the fighting has begun, but the entire city is at the harbor watching the British soldiers line up and pile into boats. General Gage orders that the leaders of the colonial opposition be arrested, but all of the principal men, such as Adams, Hancock, Revere, and Warren, have already fled toward the fighting in the countryside. Johnny sends a warning message to Uncle Lorne, because printers of Whig papers are also being rounded. -
Chapter 12: A Man Can Stand Up
Johnny travels to Lexington, trying to find Doctor Warren, but also searching for news about Rab. When he finds Warren, he learns that Rab was seriously wounded in the first volley of shots fired at Lexington, and he goes to a small back room in a tavern where Rab is resting. Rab gives Johnny his musket, saying that his only regret is that it was never fired in battle. Then he sends Johnny away, asking him to locate his family. -
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A Man Can Stand Up
No members of Rab’s family are in their house, and Johnny returns, defeated, to learn that Rab has died in his absence. Rab had sent him away on a wild-goose chase because he did not want Johnny to see him die. Alone with Doctor Warren, Johnny finally lets him examine his injured hand. The thumb, the doctor discovers, is fused to the palm only by scar tissue. If Johnny is brave enough to stand the pain, Warren can cut the thumb loose. It is unlikely that Johnny will ever be a silversmith again,
