of the Mercenaries. We, in turn, had countered
this move. When the signal was given, from every refuge, all over the
land, and from the cities, and towns, and barracks, devoted comrades
were to go forth and blow up the wireless stations. Thus at the first
shock would the Iron Heel be brought to earth and lie practically
dismembered.

At the same moment, other comrades were to blow up the bridges and
tunnels and disrupt the whole network of railroads. Still further, other
groups of comrades, at the signal, were to seize the officers of the
Mercenaries and the police, as well as all Oligarchs of unusual ability
or who held executive positions. Thus would the leaders of the enemy
be removed from the field of the local battles that would inevitably be
fought all over the land.

Many things were to occur simultaneously when the signal went forth. The
Canadian and Mexican patriots, who were far stronger than the Iron Heel
dreamed, were to duplicate our tactics. Then there were comrades (these
were the women, for the men would be busy elsewhere) who were to post
the proclamations from our secret presses. Those of us in the higher
employ of the Iron Heel were to proceed immediately to make confusion
and anarchy in all our departments. Inside the Mercenaries were
thousands of our comrades. Their work was to blow up the magazines
and to destroy the delicate mechanism of all the war machinery. In the
cities of the Mercenaries and of the labor castes similar programmes of
disruption were to be carried out.

In short, a sudden, colossal, stunning blow was to be struck. Before the
paralyzed Oligarchy could recover itself, its end would have come.
It would have meant terrible times and great loss of life, but no
revolutionist hesitates at such things. Why, we even depended much, in
our plan, on the unorganized people of the abyss. They were to be loosed
on the palaces and cities of the masters. Never mind the destruction
of life and property. Let the abysmal brute roar and the police and
Mercenaries slay. The abysmal brute would roar anyway, and the police
and Mercenaries would slay anyway. It would merely mean that various
dangers to us were harmlessly destroying one another. In the meantime we
would be doing our own work, largely unhampered, and gaining control of
all the machinery of society.

Such was our plan, every detail of which had to be worked out in secret,
and, as the day drew near, communicated to more and more comrad