“By gracious! there are some more faint marks on the damp clay,” said Chick, bending nearer.
“Exactly,” Nick nodded.
“What do you make of them?”
“That side of the box that came next to the ground was marked with the ordinary ink and brush such as shippers use. There probably was an address marked on the box.”
“And transferred to the clay?”
“Precisely. The damp clay moistened the ink and has retained parts of some of the more heavily marked letters, chiefly the capital letters.”
“I see.”
“They are faint and much blurred, however, as well as reversed in position; but—yes, I am right. Here are two at the end of an address marked on the box.”
“They look like two small letters, a ‘g’ and an ‘e,’” said Chick, twisting so as to view them better.
“That’s correct,” said Nick, using his lens. “They are the final letters of the word college. Here is the loop of one ‘l’, also the larger curve of the capital ‘C.’”