16 "Then tell them these ideas," Gray encouraged.
"We've got to have something to cling to. Most of us have no
pride or dignity left. Give us something, North, anything. Something to
believe in, to cling to, or we'll all go crazy. One boy I know
deliberately flew into the flier ways the other day. We've got to have
SOMETHING North!"
17 "All right!" North agreed, "We'll get together next week. But there
are some things I want everyone to do. One, they're all to wear hoods
and squeakers so if anybody records us, they won't be able to identify
our voices.
18 You will contact one person, and give him a code word. That person
will contact someone else, and give them a different code word. We will
arrive at different times and be identified by the person inviting us.
The Guard has spies everywhere. No sense making it easy for them!"
19 So it was, a few days later, a terrified North found himself
standing in an abandoned mine watching the others arrive and finding
seats among the rocks and discarded timbers. Finally about twenty of
them were scattered about the tunnel. Gray Mountain came forward.
"We're all here! " he announced.
20 Slowly North paced back and forth before those seated around him.
Finally, he began to speak. "If you're expecting a great orator, you're
going to be disappointed. What I have to say can be said without great
words. We're sick and tired of the disgrace that now rules The Empire.
We desire a change. As young as we are ...and I can see some of us are
VERY young, we can do little but wait, study, and plan.
21 I have some ideas, some you will like, some you will not like. But I
tell you right now, it will be a long, hard struggle and some of us
will die before we see its conclusion, but conclude it we will; if not
for us, for those children that come after us so they will not have to
live the way we have lived.
22 For I tell you now, I do not intend to be Lord God.