 Why are many of the main characters so suspicious of each other?
SILENCE IS—DEADLY By Bertrand L. Shurtleff Radio is an absolute necessity in modern organization—and particularly in modern naval organization. With him came a boatload of scientific apparatus and equipment, including a number of things that looked like oxygen tanks, which were now stored in the forward hold. Androka had watched over his treasures with the jealous care of a mother hen, and spent hours daily in the room in the superstructure that had been assigned as his laboratory. Nevertheless, his taut face, restless, searching eyes, and eternally nervous manner got Curtis' goat. "But this storm, sir!" Nelson avoided Curtis' friendly eyes and slipped out from under his arm. Nelson's estimate, I'm checking back," he declared, frowning at the two papers and hastily rechecking his own figures. With all these rocks and islets—" "Radio?" repeated the little Czech, thrusting his face between the other two, in his independent fashion that ignored ship's discipline. Then he hastened to the radio room, with Nelson at his heels, and the Czech trotting along behind. "Yet not dead, gentlemen! I have shattered them around your ship, just as I can eventually shatter them all over Central Europe! For the next two hours, no radio messages can enter or leave my zone of radio silence—of refracted radio waves, set up by my little station on one of the neighboring islets!"
 Because many of characters are of different nationalities in the midst of a World War.
 Because many of the characters are making ignorant mistakes.  Because many of the characters have reason from prior experiences to not trust each other.  Because many of characters are of different nationalities in the midst of a World War.  Because many of the characters are in a state of confusion and fear after the gas incident.