Mystery clue

Today, I finally managed to get a box planted and the clue finished.  You can try your hand now at The Purloined Letter letterbox.  I'm not spoiling anything by saying that The Purloined Letter is one of Edgar Allen Poe's short story mysteries.  The carve itself is cute, but I spent a lot of time designing the clue, which I also post here:

I spent a lot of time on this image to get it juuuuust right.  I'm not very good at graphics and image editing, so it took me a long time to create this.  I'm really hoping that the clue works at all - and mostly, I'm hoping that once folks figure it out, they will have that aha! moment and a smile on their face.  Time for the count down...  That's the worst part for me, waiting for the first finder.

Back to carving.