Lighting the lamp in her room, Betty glanced toward her trunk mechanically. She had left it locked, but the lid was now ajar. Had some one been tampering with the lock? "He's opened it " she cried to herself, making a hasty examination. "How did he dare And look at the mess everything's in " -from "Good-by to Bramble Farm" The Stratemeyer Syndicate, prodigious producers of children's series fiction, was famous for its Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books. But its less well-known series are just as entertaining, and just as revealing of the cultures of their era. In this 1920 installment in the Betty Gordon series, the young orphan heads to the national capital to search for her uncle, and thus ensue numerous urban exploits with her pals Libbie and Bobby (the traditional tomboy with a boy's name). Their "strange adventures in a great city" are delightful reading for children and adults alike. ALICE B. EMERSON was one of the pen names used by the anonymous authors of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Other books in the Betty Gordon series include Betty Gordon at Boarding School and Betty Gordon in the Land of Oil. "Emerson" also wrote the Ruth Fielding series of young adult novels.