CHAPTER II.
THE DICE-BOX.
That same afternoon, at four o'clock, Captain Barker and Captain Runacles entered Harwich and advanced up the West Street side by side.

Each had a bulky letter in his side-pocket, and the address upon each letter was the same.

They talked but little.
On the right-hand side of West Street, as you enter the town, and a hundred yards or more from the town gate, there stood at that time a two-storeyed house of more pretensions than its fellows--from which it drew back somewhat.

A line of railings, covered with ironwork of a florid and intricate pattern, but greatly decayed, shut it off from the roadway.

The visitor, on opening the broad iron gate over which this pattern culminated in the figure of a Triton blowing a conch-shell, found himself in a pebbled court and before a massive front-door.
Neglect hung visibly over house and court alike as the two captains entered by the iron gate and looked around them with more trepidation than they had ever displayed in action.