âNo, sir. But ye neednât have no difficulty about that. Itâs a âigh âun with a stone front with a bow on it, anâ âigh steps up to the door. I know them steps, âavinâ âad to carry the boxes up with three loafers what come round to earn a copper. The old gent give them shillinâs, anâ they seeinâ they got so much, they wanted more; but âe took one of them by the shoulder and was like to throw âim down the steps, till the lot of them went away cussinâ.â I thought that with this description I could find the house, so, having paid my friend for his information, I started off for Piccadilly. I had gained a new painful experience; the Count could, it was evident, handle the earth-boxes himself. If so, time was precious; for, now that he had achieved a certain amount of distribution, he could, by choosing his own time, complete the task unobserved. At Piccadilly Circus I discharged my cab, and walked westward; beyond the Junior Constitutional I came across the house described, and was satisfied that this was the next of the lairs arranged by Dracula. The house looked as though it had been long untenanted. The windows were encrusted with dust, and the shutters were up. All the framework was black with time, and from the iron the paint had mostly scaled away.
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