He knew such a good story, which, having told, he seemed to have forgotten all about the clock, for he said nothing more about it, and not much more about Mr.Roberts.
But when, a little later, he followed her into that gentleman's room for the purpose of unlocking a trunk which had been delivered that day, he took advantage of her momentary absence in search of the key to pull out that cuckoo-clock from the wall where it hung and read the small slip of paper pasted across its back.

As he hoped, it gave both the name and address of the merchant from whom it had been bought.

But that was not all.

Running in diagonal lines across this label, he saw some faded lines in fine handwriting, which proved to be a couplet signed with five initials.

The latter were not quite legible, but the couplet he could read without the least difficulty.