Rutledge took the rope and examined the discs. Both were there, the name on each one worn but still legible. The only difference between the two he held now and the one that had been found in Sussex was a small nick in the edge of the one owned by Jones.

“You’re right,” he said slowly. “You have both.” After a moment he passed them back to Jones. “Did you ever serve with men from the vicinity of Hastings? Anyone named Theo Hartle, Jim Roper, Anthony Pierce, or William Jeffers?” He deliberately put no rank to the names.

An army in the field was seldom made up of one homogenous regiment. To bring a regiment up to strength, the army took what it needed from whatever troops were available. And so a company from Hastings might for a time serve with a company from Glasgow, only to see it replaced by a company from Cornwall if it suffered heavy casualties.

But Jones shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“You were a sapper. Did you ever serve under a Lieutenant Daniel Pierce?”

“Never served with him, but we knew about him. There were stories of his going back into a tunnel to see why a charge hadn’t blown. Or going back after men caught in the tunnel when it collapsed. One such story claimed he broke through into a German countertunnel, and the two men shook hands, then shot each other. I don’t know how much of it was true, but we were always willing to believe the tales. It gave us a glamour, you might say. They claimed he dug a hole down to hell one night, and dined with the devil. There was always something being whispered behind the backs of our officers. It was their opinion such tales encouraged recklessness. It was dangerous duty at the best of times.”

“What else was whispered about Lieutenant Pierce?”

“Oh, I dunno. That he was unlucky in love, that sort of thing.” He set the discs back in the trunk, straightened the contents where he’d been digging around, and added over his shoulder, “He wasn’t the only one unlucky in love. I came home to find that the girl I was to marry had eloped with a bo’sun from a frigate. An Englishman at that.”

Hamish was saying something in the back of his mind, but Rutledge was already posing the question. “How did you know that Pierce was unlucky in love?”