aster 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, impa