The Redcoats are Coming!

by Marianne Hering

  Patrick had helped Reverend Clarke’s sons hide the carriage in the woods. They hurried to the hiding place and brought it back to the farm. Paul Revere left them and headed to the tavern. He went to get the trunk and the important papers.

  By then it was getting close to dawn. The cousins and Sybil gathered again in front of the house.

  Lexington Green was crowded with minutemen. The drummer was still drumming. The bell was still ringing.

  “If Paul Revere never made it to Concord,” Beth said, “who will warn the townspeople?”

  Beth looked at Sybil and then Patrick.

  “We can ride to Concord,” Sybil said. She gathered up her long skirt and ran toward the stable. “I’ll saddle up the horses. They’ll be ready in a minute.”

  War!

  Patrick and Beth ran after Sybil.

  Sybil saddled Star. Then she went to the second horse. She patted its black mane. “I hope you’re ready to ride fast, Sugar,” she said.

  Patrick leaned his cane against a post. Then he helped Sybil saddle Sugar. He gave Beth a leg up onto the saddle. She scooted back so he could climb up.

  “What about your cane?” Beth asked.

  “I don’t need it now,” Patrick said. He settled into the saddle in front of Beth.

  “How will a cane help me on a ride?” Patrick asked.

  “We must go!” Sybil shouted. She was on Star now.

  “You have to bring the cane,” Beth said. “Please! Mr. Whittaker said to always keep it with you.”

  Patrick groaned. “Oh, all right,” he said. He climbed down and grabbed the cane. Then he pulled himself back up on the saddle.

  “Satisfied?” he asked smugly. He flicked the reins. “Let’s go!”

  Star and Sugar trotted out through the stable doors.

  They now faced the green. The soldiers in red and the Patriots had their rifles raised.

  “This way!” Sybil shouted. She raced away from the green.

  Patrick urged Sugar to follow. Beth wrapped her arms around Patrick’s waist.

  Gunshots exploded behind them.

  Pow! Pow! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Patrick glanced back. Clouds of white and black smoke covered both groups of soldiers. Patrick couldn’t see what was happening. But he knew many Patriots would die.

  Patrick dug his heels into Sugar’s side. They galloped faster after Sybil and Star.

  The early morning air was cool. The gray predawn light shone on the road in front of them. Patrick could hear the twitter of birds waking up in the trees.

  They came to a group of houses. This village was quiet and still.

  They trotted alongside Sybil and Star.

  “You ride down that street,” Sybil said, pointing to the right. “I’ll ride down this one. We’ll meet on the other end where they join up again.”

  They reached the first house. Patrick pulled on Sugar’s reins.

  “Whoa,” he said.

  “The redcoats are coming!” Beth shouted.

  Her voice sounded small. The morning chorus of birds seemed louder. No one in the house stirred.

  “The redcoats are coming!” Patrick shouted at the top of his voice.

  Everything was still.

  “People are still asleep,” Beth said. “We have to go door to door to wake them up.”

  Patrick looked at the houses. Doors and fences lined the front of each one.

  “That will take forever,” he said.

  “What can we do?”” Beth asked.

  Patrick felt angry. He lifted his cane. He felt like throwing it through someone’s window. That would wake them up, he thought. Then he had an idea.

  He tugged at the reins. Sugar moved closer to the fence.

  “What are you doing?” Beth asked.

  Patrick swung the cane against the wooden fence. Bang! Bang! Bang!

  A window opened from upstairs. A man leaned out the window. He was wearing a white nightcap on his head.

  “What the blazes!” he shouted.

  “The redcoats are coming!” Patrick and Beth shouted at the same time.

  The man looked startled and then waved his hand. “Alert the others!” he cried.

  “Giddyap!” Patrick shouted to Sugar. They moved to the next house. The door was a couple of feet from the street.

  Patrick used the cane to hammer the door. Again a man appeared in the second-story window. The cousins shouted their message.

  Then they were off down the road. The big horse galloped past each house. Patrick rapped on the doors or fences with his cane.

  He and Beth took turns shouting, “The redcoats are coming! The redcoats are coming!”

  Soon, candles glowed from inside all the houses. Men and women stepped outside into the cool morning air.

  The cousins reached the end of the street. Sybil rode up to meet them on Star. They exchanged smiles and nods, and then they raced on.

  By now the sky was a cotton-candy pink.

  They galloped until they reached another group of houses. Men with red coats and muskets stepped onto the street. They formed a line to block the road.

  Sybil and Patrick brought their horses to a halt. One of the redcoats broke through the line. He pointed to Patrick.

  “I know these children,” the man shouted. “They’re Patriots and a nuisance! Stop them!”

  “It’s Mr. Brown,” Beth cried.

  “Hold on!” Patrick called over his shoulder.

  Patrick kicked his heels into Sugar’s sides. The horse reared. Then it galloped to an alley on the right. Sybil raced along behind them on Star.

  Patrick’s heart beat fast. He looked down a narrow lane. A handful of redcoats appeared at the end. All of them carried muskets. Drums beat somewhere.

  “Oh no!” Beth called out.

  Patrick urged Sugar to go faster.

  They reached another road. Patrick stole a quick look back toward the town. The line of redcoats they’d met earlier was still there. An officer on horseback seemed to be shouting at the soldiers.

  Patrick looked forward. He saw a large town just beyond a bridge.

  “Concord!” Sybil shouted at them.

  Concord! Patrick thought with relief. We’ve made it all the way to Concord. This is where the Imagination Station first landed.

  Sugar and Star pounded across the bridge into Concord. Beth shouted out the warning. Patrick used his cane to make as much noise as possible. The men and women of the town rushed into the streets.

  “The redcoats are across the bridge!” Patrick called out. His throat began to hurt.

  They reached the other side of Concord. The horses slowed to a trot.

  “What now?” Patrick asked Sybil.

  “We’ve done as much as we can,” Sybil said.

  They turned their horses and looked back on the town. A group of colonists were gathering with their guns. More and more men joined them.

  Just then Patrick heard a familiar hum. It came from behind a tree beside the road. He slid down from Sugar’s saddle and stood on wobbly legs. He could see that Beth also heard the noise. He helped her down. Then he handed Sugar’s reins to Sybil.

  “I’m so glad we’re leaving,” Beth said to Patrick. “I don’t want to see anyone die.”

  Patrick understood what she meant. There would be bloodshed and death. This was where the real war for freedom began.

  “We’ll go home a different way,” Patrick told Sybil. “But you’d better hurry! Before they start shooting here, too.”

  “Are you sure you’ll be safe?” Sybil asked them.

  “We’ll be safe enough,” Patrick said.

  Sybil smiled. “I’ve no need to worry about you two,” she said.

  She jabbed her heels into Star’s sides. The pony moved slowly forward. She pulled on Sugar’s reins. The two horses moved off across a field.

  “Good-bye!” Sybil shouted.

  “Good-bye!” Beth and Patrick said. They both waved.

  The cousins walked into t
he woods toward the humming noise. The Imagination Station stood in a small clearing with its doors open.

  “I’m tired,” Beth said.

  “So am I,” Patrick said. “I’ll be glad to get back.”

  Suddenly, a group of redcoats stepped out from behind the trees.

  “The traitors!” a voice called out. It was Ross, the spy. He pointed his musket at them.

  Patrick and Beth dove into the machine.

  The doors slid shut.

  Ka-pow!

  The front window of the Imagination Station cracked.

  Beth screamed.

  A musket ball was stuck in the center of the glass. Cracks in the glass spread out in a circle.

  Patrick slapped his palm on the red button.

  Everything went dark.

  Patrick felt strange. The machine rocked back and forth from side to side. Then it rocked from front to back.

  “What’s happening?” Beth asked. Her voice was shaking.

  The Imagination Station shuddered and rattled. It sounded as if it was falling apart. Beth grabbed Patrick’s hand. Patrick closed his eyes tight.

  The noise stopped, and the rocking of the machine slowed down. Patrick felt as if they were floating. They moved up and down like ocean waves. He opened his eyes.

  Beth still held his hand.

  Patrick frowned as he blinked in the darkness. He no longer sat on the cushions in the Imagination Station. He was sitting on something hard and wooden. He felt pinpricks in his back like small splinters.

  They were sitting on the deck of a ship. Their backs were pressed against a tall mast. Patrick looked up at the mast through the dark shadows of the night. The moon shone on a flag flying high in the breeze. He could see a snake against a yellow background. Across the bottom were the words “Don’t Tread on Me.”

  Patrick had seen the symbol before in a history book. “That’s an American flag from the Revolutionary War,” he said to Beth.

  The ship rocked back and forth in the waves. It creaked each time it moved.

  Beth let go of Patrick’s hand and slowly stood up. “Why didn’t we go back to Whit’s End?” she asked.

  Patrick wondered if the gunshot had damaged the Imagination Station. He got to his feet. But his legs ached. He grabbed the mast to steady himself.

  “We must have landed somewhere in the middle of the war,” Patrick said.

  “Then why is it so quiet?” Beth asked.

  A shadow moved in the darkness behind them. Patrick felt something small and hard push into his back.

  A pistol? he wondered.

  “Who goes there?” a low voice asked.

  To find out more about the next book, Captured on the High Seas, visit TheImaginationStation.com.

  Secret Word Puzzle

  The founders of the United States chose a motto for their new country. Want to know what it was? Fill in the code on the next page using the code cracker below. The letters in boxes, when written in numbered order, spell out another name for the redcoats.

  A = X

  B = Y

  C = Z

  D = A

  E = B

  F = C

  G = D

  H = E

  I = F

  J = G

  K = H

  L = I

  M = J

  N = K

  O = L

  P = M

  Q = N

  R = O

  S = P

  T = Q

  U = R

  V = S

  W = T

  X = U

  Y = V

  Z = W

  Go to TheImaginationStation.com Find the cover of this book. Click on “Secret Word.” Type in the correct answer, and you’ll receive a prize.

  About the Authors and Illustrator

  AUTHOR MARIANNE HERING is the former editor of Focus on the Family Clubhouse® magazine.

  She has written more than a dozen children’s books. She began writing these books for her twin sons, Justin and Kendrick.

  ILLUSTRATOR DAVID HOHN draws and paints covers and pictures for books, posters, and projects of all kinds. He works from his studio in Portland, Oregon.

  AUTHOR NANCY I. SANDERS is the bestselling and award-winning children’s author of more than eighty books. She and her husband, Jeff, visited Lexington Green and toured the tavern. Find out more about the her at nancyisanders.com.