Mac paused the story of the assault on Riva Ridge. From her artists table, Caydance retrieved the hand held slide projector and the slides of the images painted on the music box. One by one she put a slide into the viewer and handed it to Griff, in the process explaining the contents of each painting.

“One: The Tenth Army Mountain Division in training in Camp Hale, Colorado. Sixteen soldiers in US Army uniforms on skis are lined up on a plateau below a mountain range. Two: A Land Girl Poster from World War II. A solitary woman strides across the landscape. There are low Eastern mountains in the distance. Three: this is the slide that interests you, The attack plan for Riva Ridge in the Italian Apennines.’

“The plan shows the routes that the 10th Mountain Division used to reach the summit of Riva Ridge, where they took the German defenders by surprise,” Mac interjected.

“It is followed by a painting of soldiers playing cards. We now surmise that among the soldiers playing cards is Lt Pete Lafitte, and that probably he won the manuscript in a card game.”