Read the following passage and questions, then choose the right answer from options, the answer should be one of A, B, C, D.

<passage>:
always acted as if he had some secret, something to hide. together—conversations which they would end abruptly when anyone else The hurried Comerford had all regained consciousness and were drying out in front of the big driftwood bonfires in the cove. area that they had been put ashore without food or extra clothing or equipment of any kind, and that no boats had been left for them. whose mind had been turned by the horror that had come to his country under the domination of the Nazi gestapo over his pale eyes his thin face a mass of tense lines his big hands navigating officer—dependable, accurate, conscientious. Nevertheless, his taut face, restless, searching eyes, and eternally nervous manner trotting along behind. The door burst open as they neared it. A frightened operator came out, still wearing his earphones, and stood staring upward incredulously at the aërial. me about five minutes ago. I was taking the weather report when the set conked. I was trying to see if something's wrong." "Dead!" Androka muttered, with a bitter laugh. "Yet not dead, gentlemen! The set is uninjured. The waves are what have been upset. I by radio at once! If you're not talking nonsense, call off your dogs till we learn just where we are!" Androka held out his palms helplessly. "I can do nothing. I have given orders to my assistant that he must keep two hours of radio silence! I Commander and navigator had both scribbled verifications of the numbers. Ignoring the gibbering Androka, who was wailing his disappointment that messages had penetrated his veil of silence, they raced for the chart room. They went on through the night. The starlit gap in the clouds had closed. The sky was again a blanket of darkness pouring sheets of rain at them. "It's a funny thing," the latter said, still dialing and grousing, "how I got that cross-bearing through and can't get another squeak out of He lingered over the apparatus, checking and rechecking. Tubes lighted wires were alive to the touch and set him to shaking his head at the found the little inventor pacing up and down, shaking his fists in the air pausing every now and then to run his bony fingers through his tangled mop of gray hair, or to claw nervously at his beard. knew what I am doing, all of them would be better dead. You understand—better dead?" Curtis said: "I understand." on his slicker as he went. The shout from the watch forward had been picked up, and was being relayed all over the ship. The words struck on Curtis' ears with a note of impending tragedy. I'm afraid we're gored!" "Get out the collision mat!" Curtis ordered. "We ought to be able to keep her up!" And then he became aware of a deadly stillness. A vast wall of silence enveloped the entire cruiser. Looking over the side, he could no longer see the waves that a few minutes before had beaten savagely against the The Comerford was shrouded in a huge pall of yellowish-gray mist, and more of it was coming up from below—from ventilators and hatchways and skylights—as if the whole ship were flooded with some evil vapor. the Maginot Line, and of other forts in Holland and Belgium that had fallen before the early Nazi blitzkrieg, when their defenders found themselves struck numb and helpless by a gas that had been flooded into the inner compartments of their strongholds. There were those who said it was the work of sappers who had tunneled under the foundations, while others laid the induction of the gas to Fifth Column traitors. There were a hundred more or less plausible explanations— The vapor clouds that enveloped the were becoming thicker. All about the deck lay the forms of unconscious seamen, suddenly stricken helpless. And then Curtis saw other forms flitting about the deck—forms that looked like creatures from another world, but he recognized them for what they were—men wearing gas masks. Nelson was nowhere in sight. The steersman lay in a limp heap beside the swinging wheel. Then a gas-masked figure appeared through the shroud of mist and steadied it, so that the cruiser would not be screaming and flailing its clanking way through the hawse hole. Then he was completely walled in by the yellowish-gray mist. He felt his senses swimming. Voices droned all around him in mumbling confusion—guttural voices that ebbed and flowed in a tide of excited talk. He caught a word of began to throb, as if someone were pounding on them from the inside. He couldn't get his breath a cloud seemed to be mounting within him until it swept over his brain— He felt something strike the side of his head, and realized that he had fallen in a heap on the bridge. And after that, he wasn't conscious of anything— into the sandbar at the entrance of the inlet. From her bridge, Navigating Officer Nelson watched the gas-masked figures moving about the decks, descending companionways—like goblins from an ancient fairy tale or a modern horror story. Nelson looked like "Yeah!" Bradford agreed. "It worked—fine!" The limp bodies of the lowered accommodation ladder and transferred into waiting lifeboats. Nelson swore under his breath. "Reckon it'll take a couple of hours before the ship's rid of that damn gas!" Bradford shook his head in disagreement. "The old geezer claims he's got a neutralizing chemical in one of them tanks of his that'll clear everything up inside half an hour." "I'd rather get along without Androka, if we could!" Nelson muttered. "It was a crackpot who invented the gas we used to break up the Maginot Line," Bradford reminded him. "It saved a lot of lives for the World War. My mother committed suicide when she learned that we were penniless. My father—" He paused and cleared his throat. " for a career in the United States navy—and no one suspected me. No "Sometimes," Bradford put in, "I think Curtis suspected you." here secretly, a few at a time, during the past six weeks!" while the efficient stretcher-bearers worked industriously to remove the limp bodies of the unconscious crew and row them ashore. with strange-looking radio equipment, and more gas tanks like those Androka had brought aboard the out of her convoy." "The "What's the idea?" misfires, if there is the slightest suspicion of treachery on his part, that portholes were being opened, and men were spraying chemical around to rid the below-decks atmosphere of the lethal gas that had overcome the Comerford's found himself lying in wet sand, on a beach, somewhere, with the rain—now a light, driving mist—beating on his face. He was chilled his limbs were stiff and numb. His nose and throat felt parched inside, as if a wave of searing heat had scorched them. According to his last calculations, the Comerford a minute, like a child learning to walk. at the heartfelt concern in his friendly brown eyes. The young ensign was red-headed, impetuous, thoroughly genuine in his emotions. off the sandbar and put to sea!" The words struck Curtis with the numbing shock of a blow on some nerve center. For the first time, he realized fully the tragedy that had swept down on him. He had lost his ship—one of the United States navy's fastest and newest small light cruisers—under circumstances which smelled strongly of treachery and sabotage. As he thought back, he realized that he might have prevented the loss, if he had been more alert, more suspicious. For it was clear to him now that the had been deliberately steered to this place

<question>:
Why are many of the main characters so suspicious of each other?

<options>:
A Because many of the characters are making ignorant mistakes.
B Because many of the characters have reason from prior experiences to not trust each other.
C Because many of characters are of different nationalities in the midst of a World War.
D Because many of the characters are in a state of confusion and fear after the gas incident.

<answer>:

C