!
Well--_a la guerre comme a la guerre_." He smiled gently. "But my
story. I want you, as an impartial observer, just arrived, with an
unbiassed mind, to tell me if you think my joining up of two or three
points of detail is a sound one. Both these officers know the points
of detail, so your opinion will be more valuable than theirs.

"A few nights ago our battalion had one of those unfortunate little
contretemps that so often happen in war. A subaltern of ours, John
Brinton by name, went out on patrol, and never returned. An exhaustive
search in No Man's Land failed to discover his body; so we were
reluctantly compelled to conclude that he was in German hands; whether
alive or dead we don't know. There we have the first fact in my case.
Now for the second.

"Two nights after that another of our subalterns was killed in a way
which struck me as peculiar. I will not weary you with all the various
little points that led me to believe that the bullet which killed him
did not come from the trenches opposite; I will merely say that his
position, his height, and the depth of the trench were the most
obvious. And granted that my conclusions were correct, strange as it
might appear at first sight, his death must have been caused at close
quarters, possibly in the trench itself."

"Good Lord!" muttered the Adjutant, who was now listening with
interest. "What do you mean?"

"Two facts, you see," went on Staunton quietly. "And they would have
remained unconnected in my mind--Brinton's capture and Dixon's
death--but for a small point of detail. Dixon's jacket was without the
left regimental badge when his body was found. His servant knows he
had them both earlier in the day. On the contrary, Brinton had lost
his left regimental badge for some time. Am I interesting you?"

"Profoundly, thank you, sir." The man opposite smiled amiably.

"I'm glad of that; it's an interesting problem. You see the
significance of that small point about the badge, the way in which it
connects very intimately Brinton's capture and Dixon's death. So
intimately, in fact, does it connect them, that one is almost tempted
to assume that the man who killed Dixon was the man in possession of
Brinton's uniform. Are you with me so far?"

"The evidence seems a trifle slight," remarked Jesson.

"Quite true; the evidence is very slight. But then, it often is.
Everything up to date turns on the question of the badge. Let me
reconstruct