• This title was dropped from the series in 1938.
Beverly Gray, Freshman acquired the
Beverly Gray series in 1938, however, the Chicago World's Fair was receding further into the past and preparations had begun for the
1939–40 New York World's Fair. Blank's editor wrote her in a 1941 letter that said: "Because [''Beverly Gray at the World's Fair
] specifically referred to the Chicago Fair and work on the New York Fair was underway, we felt that readers might be disappointed to discover that Beverly had been to the old fair – not the New York one". As a general policy, her editor went on, when Grosset foresaw "a long and steady sale", it sought to "avoid having anything in the stories that might date them". while reporting for the Tribune
, is initially hesitant; though she earns "an income from [her] short stories", her financial stability depends on the sale of her manuscript, already rejected once, to a publisher. Ultimately the second rejection actually spurs her to "revolt". Quitting her job mid-week, Beverly elects "to hang her conscience in a dark closet and forget about it". Three days later the Susabella'' leaves New York. That day Beverly narrowly escapes a "menacing" shark, but the real excitement waits three more days, for when a storm washes Jim overboard. Despair is particularly acute for Beverly, whom Shirley believes "has been in love with Jim all the time—and didn't know it". 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, meets the
Susabella at the London docks. Slim confided that he is in possession of a treasure map, and, fearing for his life should his secret be discovered, found it prudent to bestow upon Jim one half of the map until they set foot on dry land. 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". and when the lights come one, Slim is on the floor with "a knife through his heart. Murdered!" Slim's half of the map falls into the permanent possession of Beverly's party, promising adventure and the search for treasure. The remainder of
World Cruise consists of travels through six countries while followed by those seeking Slim's half of the map. London sees Beverly, Shirley and Lenora go to the "famous Rag Market", a story plagiarized from Mabel Herbert Urner, and Beverly runs into one Count Alexis de Frachiny, whose charm quickly turns Jim jealous; his charm is such that when she stumbles into him again that night, she accepts his invitation to go dancing and does not return to the
Susabella until "early in the morning". A boat and a train ride later in Paris, the eight
Susabella passengers reunite with Lois, "studying art in Paris" on a scholarship, and Anselo, who upon a chance encounter in a café informs Beverly he has "not seen the gypsies since the night your friends rescued you" in
Junior, and has "played my violin" since. They also run into Count Alexis multiple times. When Beverly and Lenora forget the name of their hotel he conveniently shows up, and even more conveniently saw them "this afternoon when I registered" at the same hotel, and when Beverly espies the Count "lounging in a doorway across the street" through Anselo's window, she blows off Aneslo's warning that "[h]e is a dangerous man" without thinking to ask why. An
Armistice Day trip to Flanders Field finds the grave site of Roger's brother George, who "ran off and joined the Army" at seventeen, while a trip to Switzerland provides mild adventure when Beverly and Shirley are lost in a snowstorm in Grindelwald. Beverly there sees "all the sights that were to bee seen": the "famous fountains, the Bear, the 'Man who eats the children', and the Sharpshooter; the old Bear Gardens; the five-hundred-year old Cathedral with the beautiful carvings and tinted glass", not to mention Count Alexis, who again pops up unannounced. 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. ==Beverly's tribulations==