When the man had fairly gone, we three crossed the
street and knocked at the door. It was immediately
opened by Quincey Morris, beside whom stood Lord Godalming
lighting a cigar.
“The place smells so vilely,” said the
latter as we came in. It did indeed smell vilely.
Like the old chapel at Carfax. And with our
previous experience it was plain to us that the Count
had been using the place pretty freely. We moved
to explore the house, all keeping together in case
of attack, for we knew we had a strong and wily enemy
to deal with, and as yet we did not know whether the
Count might not be in the house.
In the dining room, which lay at the back of the hall,
we found eight boxes of earth. Eight boxes only
out of the nine which we sought! Our work was
not over, and would never be until we should have found
the missing box.
First we opened the shutters of the window which looked
out across a narrow stone flagged yard at the blank
face of a stable, pointed to look like the front of
a miniature house. There were no windows in
it, so we were not afraid of being overlooked.
We did not lose any time in examining the chests.
With the tools which we had brought with us we opened
them, one by one, and treated them as we had treated
those others in the old chapel. It was evident
to us that the Count was not at present in the house,
and we proceeded to search for any of his effects.
After a cursory glance at the rest of the rooms, from
basement to attic, we came to the conclusion that
the dining room contained any effects which might
belong to the Count. And so we proceeded to
minutely examine them. They lay in a sort of
orderly disorder on the great dining room table.
There were title deeds of the Piccadilly house in
a great bundle, deeds of the purchase of the houses
at Mile End and Bermondsey, notepaper, envelopes,
and pens and ink. All were covered up in thin
wrapping paper to keep them from the dust. There
were also a clothes brush, a brush and comb, and a
jug and basin. The latter containing dirty water
which was reddened as if with blood. Last of
all was a little heap of keys of all sorts and sizes,
probably those belonging to the other houses.
When we had examined this last find, Lord Godalming
and Quincey Morris taking accurate notes of the various
addresses of the houses in the East and the South,
took with them the keys in a great bunch, and set
out to destroy the boxes in these places. The
rest of us are, with what patience we can, waiting
their return, or the coming of the Count.
DR. SEWARD’S DIARY
