The Iron Heel

by Jack London

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.