Beverly Gray

"[7] Three of the other four freshmen in her dormitory, Lenora Whitehill, Rosalie Arnold, and Lois Mason, prove friendly, while Beverly's roommate Shirley Parker is "aloof" and "patronizing.

The Comet's editor, Alison Cox, orders Beverly to investigate the strange happenings in the abandoned Horler Mansion, a decaying structure whose last owner was reportedly murdered.

In the resulting confrontation, the "Chinaman" is introduced as "Wah Fang,"[27] and Pete (the "head ghost") threatens to put Beverly "on a boat bound for China.

Other smugglers were also involved, and the "skeleton dance" is explained by the men donning "black suits" with "bones in phosphorescent paint" in order scare people away.

"[38] The first purported news is that a "girl matching Beverly's description" was in a Vernon art shop the night of her disappearance, when it was robbed by a man "believed to be a gypsy.

Although the shop owner offers conflicting descriptions, the Alpha Delta girls know Beverly is attached to her watch, which was presented to her at the end of her first year "for extraordinary heroism.

Assuring Beverly that (despite being from New York) she will not find Renville dull, Shirley hints at the premise for The Adventure Girls at K Bar O when she declares that "I spent one summer on a ranch in Arizona.

"[78] "Directors, actors, [and] cameramen" all descend upon the town, alongside the star Marcia Lyman, a "dark beauty" and "dazzling figure" fresh from Hollywood.

"[83] Shirley, who has apparently supplanted Beverly as the "shining light on the basketball team," refuses to let the senior-junior game interfere with her filming and subsequently watches from the stands as the seniors lose by a single point.

[88] Having followed Mr. Smith to the Wildon Hotel the previous night, Beverly and Lenora go back and gain entrance to his room through the fire escape.

"[94] At the police station, Shirley convinces the policemen to call her real father, but he is unable to arrive before the kidnappers appear, claiming to be friends of the girls.

Jim has "unenthusiastically" accepted "a job in South America" to construct a "canal of some sort," a commitment of up to a year that will prevent him from wooing Beverly.

"[110] The newly expanded Alpha Delta Sorority, along with the Lucky Circle, all join in the festivities before Anne and Tommy depart on honeymoon to "the Golden west.

After Lois departs to Paris, where she has won "an art contest" with "a year's free study" as the prize, Lenora and Connie travel by train to visit Virginia, who lives in Chicago with her aunt and uncle.

[115] Although Beverly initially has to stay behind and work, the very next day her editor assigns her to write "a series of feature articles" on the fair for "the Sunday magazine section.

"[127] These words prove prescient the next day when, relaxing at Lake Geneva, the girls have their motorboat "rammed" by another and are forced to swim an unconscious Beverly back to shore.

This appears to be an effort to frame her, for upon redemption of the ticket Beverly and Virginia are handed the murder weapon, "a gun, not small enough to be a revolver and not quite long enough for a rifle.

So is born the inspiration for Beverly Gray on a World Cruise, promising a "journey into alien lands" with "strange adventures amid new scenes and faces.

"[142] This policy would not prove to withstand the entry by the United States into World War II, but was sufficient to end publication of the original sixth work in the Beverly Gray series.

Mystery and adventure continue to remain important themes—a villainous count threatens the party after Jim comes into possession of one-half of a treasure map, and Beverly suffers the usual barrage of misfortune—yet in most other respects the book resembles a travelogue.

Joining Roger Garrett and his aunt Miss Ernwood—"a nominal chaperone, who never gets in the way of the story"[1]—on his yacht the Susabella, Beverly, Lenora, Shirley, Jim and Paul Benson set sail to London with no final destination or end date in sight.

There they are met by Roger's friend Sir Terence "Terry" Cartwright, "a jolly, good-looking young man" who "wore his clothes well, had money, was not a bit uppish with his title, and had excellent taste in neckties.

"[143] Beverly, "a working girl"[144] who constantly runs "uptown, downtown, and across town"[145] while reporting for the Tribune, is initially hesitant; though she earns "an income from [her] short stories,"[146] her financial stability depends on the sale of her manuscript, already rejected once, to a publisher.

"[150] Mourning turns to joy with the passage of another three days, at which point Jim, having been discovered by a "tramp steamer" apparently sans radio set,[note 1] meets the Susabella at the London docks.

The first night in London thus sees Jim and six others disembarking for "The Purple Dragon," a seedy bar in Limehouse, "hotbed of crime, river noises, and frequent fogs.

[166] The Count finally tips his hand back in France when, driving Beverly to Le Havre to embark for Cairo, they weather a storm in a country château.

Beverly both overhears him discussing his attempts to get the treasure map from her, and finally recognizes him as a man she saw at "The Purple Dragon" shortly before Slim's murder.

[167] Kidnappings Wild animals Injuries Menaced with weapon Assorted assaults Elemental misfortune Other The Beverly Gray series was published in the United States from 1934 to 1955.

[142] By that point Grosset was publishing such successful series as Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, The Dana Girls, Tom Swift Sr., and Judy Bolton as part of "one of the largest and most active juvenile lists in the business.

Clover Books was primarily used as "a reprint line for juvenile titles that were still profitable enough to merit publication in a cheap format but were no longer selling sufficiently well to continue in their original hardback edition," and the switch to this imprint portended the fate of the Beverly Gray series.