What a painful reality it is that Satan never sleeps! At this period of Book of Mormon history righteousness is allowed to have a foothold for only five years before wickedness is given an organized thrust through the bands of Gadianton; the hordes of hell are unleashed again upon the Nephites and Lamanites. The chief judge and his son are murdered (verses 15, 19) by the secret combinations; the government is taken over by the wicked; both Nephites and Lamanites join hands with demons in human form to spread death and desolation; and the secret oaths and covenants, and signs of old, those silent and subtle means of communication had by the ungodly from the days of the first Master Mahan (see Moses 5:31), are revealed and spread among the people.