The Prince of Spies (Hope and Glory #3) - Elizabeth Camden Page 0,20

and floppy dark hair. “I can run a five-minute mile with hurdles in the mix.”

“I don’t believe it,” Little Rollins said.

The lanky man offered a hand. “I’m Wesley Sparks, fourth place finisher in the Paris Olympics hurdle race in 1900.”

“Ouch, fourth place,” Little Rollins said.

“I know!” Wesley replied. “Do you know what coming in fourth place in the Olympics does to a man? Do you?”

“Let me guess,” Nurse Hollister said. “It makes you want to enroll in risky tests of human endurance.”

The nurse’s dry humor didn’t make a dent in the skinny man’s earnest demeanor. “No, it makes me wake up at two o’clock in the morning, reliving that race over and over. I remember it like it was yesterday. The eyes of the nation were on me after years of training and sacrifice. Two thousand years of history and sportsmanship awaited my performance, but as I took my position at the starting line, I started worrying my left shoe wasn’t tied properly. I lost out to Belgium because that shoelace distracted me. Belgium! So now I’m here for the free room and board so I can train for the St. Louis Olympics in two years. There will be no fourth-place finish in St. Louis, and I will qualify for this study.”

“Step up on the scale, St. Louis,” Nurse Hollister said. “You’re on the scrawny side for this.”

Luke held his breath, hoping St. Louis would qualify. Anyone tormented by old regrets, even if it was only missing out on a medal, deserved his sympathy.

“You pass to the next round,” the nurse said. “Next.”

This was it. Luke stepped forward, praying he weighed enough to qualify for the next round.

“Take off your belt,” the nurse intoned when he tried to step on the scale.

Blast! He’d worn his heaviest belt buckle to gain a few ounces. He yanked it off and stepped onto the scale, resisting the urge to shift with the need to relieve himself.

“One hundred and sixty-one pounds,” the nurse announced as she marked it on his chart.

Thank the good Lord! He dared not ask to use the bathroom, lest she realize what he’d done. “Can I step outside?” he asked. “I saw a water fountain in the hallway.”

“Don’t be long,” Nurse Hollister said with a nod.

He didn’t even bother to tug his shoes back on, just ran down the hall toward the men’s lavatory in stocking feet. On his way back, he took a sip from the water fountain just to keep himself honest, but he was now ready to compete against the other men in earnest.

By the time he got back, most of the volunteers had been dismissed for failing to meet the basic physical requirements, but Luke, the two brothers, St. Louis, and twenty other men were still in the running. The brothers were arguing about who was a better sailor when Luke approached the taller of the two brothers and offered his hand.

“Luke Delacroix,” he introduced himself. “I won the two-man sculling contest three years in a row in college, and according to Nurse Hollister’s chart, my eyes dilated a second faster than both of you loafers.”

They were fighting words. Big Rollins challenged him to a rowing race after the trials, and Little Rollins said he had the advantage over all the volunteers because of his cast-iron stomach.

“That will be useful against the poison you people are going to feed us, right, Nurse Hollister?” Little Rollins asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say exactly what will be in the meals,” the nurse replied.

“Acid?” St. Louis asked. “Formaldehyde? Paint thinner?”

“Let’s not dwell on it,” Luke said. “It’s all poison.”

“Then we shall be your poison eaters,” Little Rollins said to the nurse.

“That doesn’t sound quite right,” the other brother commented. “Poison crew? Poison team?”

“Poison squad,” St. Louis offered, and Luke had to admit that name had a certain flair.

They were soon all ushered into a new room for the physical tests.

“In this room we will test for basic physical coordination,” a young doctor in a white lab coat said. “Nothing exotic and no hurdles, but we need to see if you can toss a beanbag from hand to hand for a full sixty seconds.”

Big Rollins snorted. “Let’s see if we can juggle for two minutes.”

“Deal!” Little Rollins said.

Luke was curious to see if they could actually do it, but these men were both young, healthy, and had obviously spent too much time in foolish competitions. They both juggled quite well, and the nurse tried to get them to stop after