first dubious about dealing with the entire proletariat at one time, had
found the work easier than it had expected, and would have asked nothing
better than an uprising on our part. But we avoided the issue, in spite
of the fact that agents-provocateurs swarmed in our midst. In those
early days, the agents of the Iron Heel were clumsy in their methods.
They had much to learn and in the meantime our Fighting Groups weeded
them out. It was bitter, bloody work, but we were fighting for life and
for the Revolution, and we had to fight the enemy with its own weapons.
Yet we were fair. No agent of the Iron Heel was executed without a
trial. We may have made mistakes, but if so, very rarely. The bravest,
and the most combative and self-sacrificing of our comrades went into
the Fighting Groups. Once, after ten years had passed, Ernest made a
calculation from figures furnished by the chiefs of the Fighting Groups,
and his conclusion was that the average life of a man or woman after
becoming a member was five years. The comrades of the Fighting Groups
were heroes all, and the peculiar thing about it was that they were
opposed to the taking of life. They violated their own natures, yet they
loved liberty and knew of no sacrifice too great to make for the Cause.*

* These Fighting groups were modelled somewhat after the
Fighting Organization of the Russian Revolution, and,
despite the unceasing efforts of the Iron Heel, these groups
persisted throughout the three centuries of its existence.
Composed of men and women actuated by lofty purpose and
unafraid to die, the Fighting Groups exercised tremendous
influence and tempered the savage brutality of the rulers.
Not alone was their work confined to unseen warfare with the
secret agents of the Oligarchy. The oligarchs themselves
were compelled to listen to the decrees of the Groups, and
often, when they disobeyed, were punished by death--and