Chapter 9

Chapter 9 “The Scarlet Deluge”

Part 1 Because of all the problems in Boston, Paul Revere puts together a group of spies to keep an eye on the British soldiers. Paul Revere asks Johnny to keep an eye on Dove and keep track of what Colonel Smith and Lieutenant Stranger are doing at the Afric Queen. Lydia, who works at the Afric Queen, gives Johnny some ripped up papers from Lt. Stranger’s trash. Johnny and Rab put the papers back together and discover the British have a secret stash of weapons. Johnny tells Paul Revere and then he gets a group of colonists to go and take all of the weapons. Even though they didn’t get along in the past, Johnny doesn’t hate Dove anymore and they’re kind of friends. Dove hangs out with Rab and Johnny and talks a lot about the British soldiers. Johnny and Rab decide to give Dove alcohol to drink so he will get drunk and tell secrets about the British.

Part 2

But Dove gets so drunk he falls asleep, and Johnny has to do his job and clean the soldiers’ saddles. As he’s cleaning the saddles, Lieutenant Stranger comes out and tells Johnny to go get Goblin. Lt. Stranger takes Johnny and Goblin to the common to teach him how to jump. One day, while Johnny is riding Goblin and delivering newspapers, British soldiers come and yell at him. They grab Goblin and the newspapers spill all over the ground. The soldiers don’t like what the papers say. The soldiers are mad and order Johnny to get whipped, but Pumpkin is there and helps Johnny escape.

Part 3

Stop! Johnny and Goblin get away but bump into Pumpkin again at the Lyte’s house. Pumpkin tells Johnny that he doesn’t like being a soldier. He tells Johnny that he wants to be a farmer. Johnny tells Pumpkin that he’ll get him some farm clothes so he can leave the army and be a farmer. Ten days later, Pumpkin had taken the farm clothes and left behind his army uniform and his musket. Johnny takes the musket and gives it to Rab. He doesn’t say anything, but Johnny knows Rab is happy. Johnny is worried about Pumpkin. If the army catches him, they will kill him. Because of the war, there are soldiers training all over Boston. There are a lot of British and colonial soldiers. The King of England is getting angry and sends different generals to America to watch Boston. Meanwhile, Johnny spends a lot of his time riding Goblin and Colonel Smith’s horses, Nan and Sandy.

Part 4

Johnny is riding through the common when he sees soldiers lined up ready to shoot someone. Johnny sees that it is Pumpkin. The soldiers caught Pumpkin and now they’re going to shoot him. Johnny watches as Pumpkin is shot and Johnny becomes very scared.