"Yes; I found the image on the ground, and shewed it to the wounded man. He gazed at it with terror, and swooned from dread and loss of blood. I was bent on saving him, if only to learn about the Blue Mummy, for I own that so strange an object piqued my curiosity. As the man was small and light, and I was, as I am still, very strong, I picked him up in my arms, and carried him to my lodgings, which were no great distance away. Then I sent for a doctor, who, after an examination, told me that the poor devil was dying. And die he did, on that very night, four hours after I rescued him; but out of gratitude for my interference he told me the secret of the Blue Mummy." "Good," said Frank, much excited. "Let us hear it." "The man's name," resumed Blake, wiping the perspiration from his forehead, "was Pablo Mendoza, and he had been a person of some position and wealth. As he was, therefore, a desirable personage, likely to be useful, he had been induced to join the secret society of the P.P.'s." "Who are the P.P.'s?" "The Society of the Patriotic Peruvians," explained Blake. "So far as I can understand, it is formed mostly of Indians, who desire to restore the empire of the Incas, and of Spanish adventurers disaffected towards the Republic of Peru. The symbol of this society is a tomb image, Now these images--" "I know all about them," interrupted Frank. "They are substitutes for living people, placed in ancient Peruvian tombs." "Exactly. Well, this society was shewn one of these Inca sepulchres by an old Indian, and found therein over a thousand blue images placed on shelves round the embalmed body, one for each member of the dead man's household. On this discovery the society took the Blue Mummy as its symbol. Whenever a man hostile to the society was to die an image was sent to him; when a man was killed an image was placed beside his body." "In that case I should think the supply would soon be exhausted." "Oh no; for after the image had done its mission, which was to intimate who had slain the victim, it was recovered in some way, and restored to the society. For instance, when Mendoza died--by the way, he had been killed for betraying some secrets of the society--well, sir," pursued Blake, "when he died I kept the Blue Mummy, and it nearly cost me my life." "How so?" "After the death of Mendoza the society became aware--I don't know how--that I, who had rescued him, was possessed of the symbol of death. Henceforth I was nearly always in danger of death, and several times I ran the risk of stabbing, drowning, poisoning, and many other ways of being got rid of. A friend of mine, who knew about the society, advised me to get rid of the Blue Mummy, so one night I placed it in a niche outside my door. It disappeared within an hour, so after that I had no further trouble." "But what is the object of this society?"