CRIMSON MOUNTAIN by Grace Livingston Hill Page B

flashing search of the other man’s face and circled the room again.
    “Sounds good to me. But when is all this coming off? If the ground isn’t bought yet, they won’t want us for some while, will they?”
    “Oh yes,” said Rainey. “He said it was important for us to be on hand at the start, old hands, you know, in the engineering business. If they give you charge of some department, they want you to be watching for fifth columnists right at the beginning. That will allay suspicion, you know.”
    “Look out, Rainey. That girl overheard you then and gave you a quick look.”
    “Oh, girls don’t count. They’re too dumb to get on to a thing like this.”
    “I’m not so sure. Take Laurel now. She’s sharp as they make ’em. If she were to overhear the word
suspicion
used, as you did just now, she’d turn it over in her mind and maybe ask someone what it could have meant. It seems to me you ought to have been long enough in the old country, being put through your paces, to have learned that, even if you were only writing a censored column for the papers every day.”
    “Oh yes, over
there!”
sneered Rainey. “One had to be careful. But this is America, and nobody thinks of such a thing as finding any disloyal ones over here.”
    “Don’t you fool yourself,” said Winter. “Americans aren’t dumb, and if I don’t miss my guess, they’re waking up fast, more and more every day.”
    “Well, perhaps. But I think we’re fairly safe from intruders into the project for another two or three years yet, if it lasts that long.”
    Winter gave him a withering glance.
    “If that’s your idea, I don’t think you’ll be much use in this outfit,” he said. “you’ll have to get used to suspecting everybody until they are proved safe.”
    “What’s your idea, Winter? Got a grouch on? Who do you suspect? Nobody around here, surely? I wasn’t expecting to begin operations in a gathering like this.”
    “No?” said the man with the gray eyes. “Well, you’ll have to unlearn that idea, too. Who, for instance, do you figure that colorless, stolid-looking guy over in the far corner is, and what’s he here for?”
    “Who? That dumb cluck over there in the dark corner who looks like the devil in the deep sea watching for a submarine? I’m sure I wouldn’t know. Certainly doesn’t look important.”
    “Would you expect him to? Do you think they’d send a man that had it advertised all over him what he was?’
    Rainey gave him a quick startled look. “Meaning what?” he said. “You don’t think for a minute that there’d be any of those fellows here at a gathering like this? Why Faber isn’t the kind of man to invite important foreign spies to his parties.”
    “Oh, think not?” said Winter. “You said he advised that we come on this expedition, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, sure. He just wanted to give us a little change; we’ve been hanging around so long doing nothing. Wanted us to get acquainted and have a good time.”
    “Think so? Well, I don’t! Not when it’s Dexter who ordered it in the first place. You can be pretty sure he had a reason for sending us, and you can be pretty darned sure you’ll meet up with some intense questioning the next time you see him, too. He sent us here for some reason, that’s certain, and it wasn’t for any nice little philanthropic idea of showing us a good time, either. Dexter knows Faber and likely had some inside information about the personnel of this outfit, or else he planted somebody here with a special view to our presence. I think perhaps it’s up to us to find out. He may be putting us to a test, you know.”
    “Test?” said Rainey. “Oh, you’re dreaming, man. I talked to Dexter and I’m sure there wasn’t any such thing in mind. He just said very carelessly that he had wangled us an invite because he thought we would enjoy it before we got into service.”
    “Oh yes?” said the man with gray eyes. “Well, think again, brother. Our