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closet, climbed the stairs to the top of the bell tower, and lit the lanterns—but only for a moment. He didn’t want the signal to be spotted by anyone on the warship Somerset , which was clearly visible in the water below.
    Then Newman went down the stairs, put the lanterns back, leapt out a window in the back of the church, climbed up and over the roof of his mother’s house, dropped in through the window of his bedroom, and lay down in bed.
    You think he slept that night?
    Across the River
    A s soon as Paul Revere left Robert Newman at the church door, he ran home to get his riding boots. Revere’s mission was to row across the Charles River, if possible, and then ride out to Lexington with the warning. By now the streets were filled with British soldiers, armed for battle, marching toward their meeting point at the river. Avoiding the soldiers, Revere hustled from his house down to a spot on the water where he had a small rowboat hidden.
    Two friends were waiting for Revere by the boat. They had agreed to row him across the river. But now that Revere and his friends looked out at the Charles, they realized that they had a problem. The Somerset , with its sixty-four guns, was sitting out there, keeping watch on the water. And just Revere’s luck, it was a clear night with a big, bright moon. To have a chance, they would have to be absolutely silent.
    Have you ever been in a rowboat? They,make a lot of noise. The oars are held in place by metal oarlocks, which clank and squeak as the oars are pulled. To muffle this sound, Revere would need some cloth to wrap around the oarlocks. No one had thought of this ahead of time.
    Luckily, one of Revere’s friends had a girlfriend who lived on a nearby street. They rushed to her house. The guy gave a whistle outside his girl’s window. She came to the window. He whispered for her to throw down some cloth. She quickly slipped off her flannel petticoat (a kind of slip worn under a dress) and tossed it down. Revere and his friends ripped up the petticoat, wrapped it around the oarlocks, and rowed right across the river without being heard or seen by sailors on the Somerset .
    Revere and That Other Guy
    A few pals were waiting for Revere on the Charlestown shore. They told him they had seen the lanterns just fine and had already started spreading the news. They warned him that British officers were out patrolling the roads. Then they gave him a fast horse and watched him set off on the most famous horseback ride in American history. “It was then about eleven o’clock,” Revere remembered.
    We know that Revere’s first goal was to get to Lexington to warn Adams and Hancock. On the way there he warned people in houses along the road. Most people think that Revere shouted: “The British are coming! The British are coming!”
    But what he probably said was:

    â€œThe regulars are out! The regulars are out!”

    By “regulars” he meant British soldiers. He really should have said “The British are coming!” It sounds better. Oh, well—too late now.
    Paul Revere gets all the press, but meanwhile a second express rider was also out that night. He was a twenty-three-year-old shoemaker named Billy Dawes. (This was another part of Revere’s backup plan—if he got caught, maybe Dawes would get through with the warning.)
    Paul Revere
    To get out of Boston, Dawes first had to find a way past the British soldiers guarding Boston Neck. He was the perfect man for this risky job. He was the kind of guy who liked to sneak in and out of Boston pretending to be a drunken farmer, just for laughs. So he made it out on the night of April 18. Like Revere, he set out for Lexington. We’ll catch up with him in a minute.
    The Midnight Intruder
    N ow let’s check in on Samuel Adams and John Hancock, two guys who have done so much to cause all this trouble. Adams and Hancock were staying at the home of Reverend Jonas Clarke