Get quick and convenient access to just the hints you need for Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock, without staying on our website. Just download a free trial
version of our UHS Reader software and
a copy of these hints. You will get the
same gradual hints you see here -- unlike ordinary cheats or a
walkthrough that can spoil your game.
You can also buy the full version of the UHS Reader
for Windows or macOS. For just $14.95, you get full access to hints for
hundreds of games and 1 year of free updates. You can also search, decode, or print an entire
game's worth of hints at once.
Ask the Author
If you have questions about a puzzle that aren't answered
anywhere in these hints,
you may contact the author.
2 of 9: Go to the parlor and read the article in "Like Magazine" about Clever Hans. After you play Topham's card game once through, you can also get some pointers from your dad if you call him.
3 of 9: Clever Hans was a real horse who was thought to have learned how to do math because when he was given simple arithmetic problems, he'd tap his hoof to indicate the answer. Eventually, however, observers noticed that he was simply tapping his hoof until the person asking the question looked pleased, then stopping. This made it look like he was doing math when he was just reading body language.
4 of 9: The connection to this situation is that you don't have to really read Topham's mind; all you have to do is read the other cues he's giving you.
5 of 9: If you play his silly game over and over, Nancy will notice that Topham uses the same phrase every time he looks at a particular card.
6 of 9: You can figure out which phrase goes with which card yourself, if you want. Write down each phrase he uses and what card it is or isn't. You may have to play over and over, but eventually you'll have them all.
7 of 9: In Junior Detective, it's the verbs you need to pay attention to. That is, whether Topham says, "What card am I LOOKING at?" or "Do you know what card I'm LOOKING at?", it's the same card. Topham uses five different verbs for the five different cards:
8 of 9: In Senior Detective, Topham uses ten different sentences, and there's no match with the verbs. That is, "Which card am I thinking of?" might be one card, and "What card am I thinking about?" a different one. There are two sentences for each card:
9 of 9: This situation is one you might want to remember in real life. Some people who truly believe they're foretelling the future or reading minds are just reading body language without knowing it. It's easier to fool yourself than it is to fool other people, and it takes more than a sincere belief in your own magic to make you magical.
