This Symbol or Seal consisted of two parts: the outer being about four inches square, but quinquangular in shape and made from a rare green stone found only in the jungled mountains of Yunnan, resembling the green of a tiger’s eye; gleaming, glittering in the dusk. On each of the five corners was a raised gold character, and a golden rim ran around the edge. The second part consisted of a mottled bloodstone placed on the centre of the other, octagonal in shape, about an inch in diameter, and having on its high, rounded apex a gold trigram, the meaning of which is not less terrible than it is unknown. This blood-green stone with its glint of gold glittered with a light peculiarly significant, and the peasant’s eyes grew round as he watched it shudder on the breast of the dying man.
He whispered to his wife: “It is the Great Symbol.”
She drew back with an expression of terror.
“If they find him here, we will be beheaded!”
“Yes.”
“What shall we do?”
“Nurse him.”
The woman wiped the red froth from the man’s lips and the red clot from his bosom.
“If he dies?” the peasant woman whispered.
“We will bury him.”