35.
drive you have. I've told them we have a leader, and they've been waiting and waiting to meet you. I've kept putting them off, telling them you weren't quite ready. But they insist! They want to meet you, hear you, and get some idea of what you've got in mind. We need someone badly, or some of us are apt to do some stupid things."
"Others?" gasped North, "You've told others my name, and that I was your leader?"
"NO!" cried Grey in return. "Do you think I'm crazy?" Do you think I'd jeopardize your safety? I just told them there was a leader, one who had a plan. Some of them are three or four years older than I am, and we've still been talking. We've been looking for someone with fight for so long, that's all, North, but I haven't betrayed you!"
North calmed down, and returned to his seat.
"All right," he said, "but don't scare me like that Grey!" And after a moment he continued, "I don't have a plan any more than you do. Just some ideas."
"Then tell them those ideas! We've got to have something to cling to, North. Most of us have no pride or dignity left. Give us something- anything! We have to have something to believe in, to cling to, or we'll all go crazy!"
"All right," North told him. "We'll get together next week, but there's one thing I want everybody to do. Wear hoods over their faces so that no one can identify them. You will contact one person and give him a code word. That person will contact someone else and give him a different code word. We will all arrive at different times, and be identified by the person inviting us. There are Guard spies everywhere. No sense making it easy for them."
So it was a few days later, that a terrified North found himself standing in an abandoned mine, watching hooded figures in plain jackets and pants enter, and find seats on rocks and discarded timbers. Finally, about twenty people were scattered about the tunnel. Then Grey Mountain came forward.
"They are all here," he announced to North.
Slowly North paced back and forth, looking at many of the figures seated about him. Finally, he began to speak.
"If you're expecting a great orator," he said, "you're going to be greatly 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 and we desire a change. As young as we are, and I can see that some of us are VERY young, we can do little but wait, study, and plan. I have some ideas, and some of these ideas some of you will not like. Others will think them too mild, 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 our children....For I tell you, I do not intend to be Lord God. If I succeed in what I have now in mind, and we do have a rebellion, never again will the