CHAPTER XXV
THE TERRORISTS
It was not until Ernest and I were back in New York, and after
weeks had elapsed, that we were able to comprehend thoroughly the
full sweep of the disaster that had befallen the Cause. The
situation was bitter and bloody. In many places, scattered over
the country, slave revolts and massacres had occurred. The roll of
the martyrs increased mightily. Countless executions took place
everywhere. The mountains and waste regions were filled with
outlaws and refugees who were being hunted down mercilessly. Our
own refuges were packed with comrades who had prices on their
heads. Through information furnished by its spies, scores of our
refuges were raided by the soldiers of the Iron Heel.
Many of the comrades were disheartened, and they retaliated with
terroristic tactics. The set-back to their hopes made them
despairing and desperate. Many terrorist organizations
unaffiliated with us sprang into existence and caused us much
trouble.* These misguided people sacrificed their own lives
wantonly, very often made our own plans go astray, and retarded our
organization.
* The annals of this short-lived era of despair make bloody
reading. Revenge was the ruling motive, and the members of the
terroristic organizations were careless of their own lives and
hopeless about the future. The Danites, taking their name from the
avenging angels of the Mormon mythology, sprang up in the mountains
of the Great West and spread over the Pacific Coast from Panama to
Alaska. The Valkyries were women. They were the most terrible of
all. No woman was eligible for membership who had not lost near
relatives at the hands of the Oligarchy. They were guilty of
torturing their prisoners to death. Another famous organization of
women was The Widows of War. A companion organization to the
Valkyries was the Berserkers. These men placed no value whatever
upon their own lives, and it was they who totally destroyed the
great Mercenary city of Bellona along with its population of over a
hundred thousand souls. The Bedlamites and the Helldamites were
twin slave organizations, while a new religious sect that did not
flourish long was called The Wrath of God. Among others, to show
the whimsicality of their deadly seriousness, may be mentioned the
following: The Bleeding Hearts, Sons of the Morning, the Morning
Stars, The Flamingoes, The Triple Triangles, The Three Bars, The
Rubonics, The Vindicators, The Comanches, and the Erebusites.
And through it all moved the Iron Heel, impassive and deliberate,
shaking up the whole fabric of the social structure in its search
for the comrades, combing out the Mercenaries, the labor castes,
and all its secret services, punishing without mercy and without
malice, suffering in silence all retaliations that were made upon
it, and filling the gaps in its fighting line as fast as they
appeared. And hand in hand with this, Ernest and the other leaders
were hard at work reorganizing the forces of the Revolution. The
magnitude of the task may be understood when it is taken into*
* This is the end of the Everhard Manuscript. It breaks off
abruptly in the middle of a sentence. She must have received
warning of the coming of the Mercenaries, for she had time safely
to hide the Manuscript before she fled or was captured. It is to
be regretted that she did not live to complete her narrative, for
then, undoubtedly, would have been cleared away the mystery that
has shrouded for seven centuries the execution of Ernest Everhard.
