Our correspondent Heini found out the following.

The first months of the Challenger expedition were marred by endless fights about laundry. After Marguerite had finally accepted that neither Malone, nor Roxton or Veronica were willing to do maid duties for her, she took care of the laundry herself. The lack of suitable detergent was a point of deep frustration for her. “You’re supposedly a scientist, Challenger, do something! Invent!!!” she repeated time and again and finally Professor Challenger retreated to his lab and after three weeks he had invented a detergent that is nothing short of miraculous.

PlateauClean is not only able to remove the nastiest stains, keep whites white, it also has a most pleasing smell reminiscent of wild flowers AND it is completely ecological and does not harm the fragile ecosystem of the Plateau.

Even Miss Krux was so impressed that she could only utter. “George, you did it!”

Heini was also able to do a short interview with Miss Krux, Mr. Malone and Lord Roxton. Here is his transcript:

 

Heini: Dear Miss Krux, gentlemen, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you agreed to this interview. My editor might even start paying me for my services. (Editor’s note: Yeah, RIGHT!)

Lord Roxton: Sure. No problem. So you want to know more about the firearms we are using.

Heini: Uhm… actually… not really. The article is about fashion.

Ned Malone: Oh no. I don’t really want to talk about fabrics and color choices for blondes. We had this conversation with Vantu Kyle.

Heini: I know, I know. But this article is about unchartered terrain, if I may say so.

Marguerite: Oh? What unchartered terrain exactly?

Heini (slightly embarrassed and in a very low voice): Underwear.

All three in unison: WHAT?

Lord Roxton: I’m sorry but there are some topics that a gentleman doesn’t talk about.

Ned Malone: I’m an American. We don’t talk about underwear. I’d rather talk about Roxton’s guns.

Marguerite (laughing): What’s wrong, you two? Worried that the underwear scandal of 1921 will come to light?

Heini: Miss Krux?

Lord Roxton: Really, Marguerite, you of all people should know better. Some things have to be kept secret…

Marguerite: Really, boys, just because all your underwear disappeared for three weeks and you had to walk through the jungle without any…

Ned Malone: Marguerite!!!

Marguerite: Okay… Not saying another word. You two are really too touchy about some subjects.

Lord Roxton: Sorry, Heini, but we have to help Challenger with some experiments, we’ll talk again soon, I promise.

Heini: Uhm… maybe one little follow-up question?

Marguerite: Lieber nicht. Komm morgen wieder.

Ned Malone: What did she say?

Lord Roxton: No idea. I only speak English.

 

While this interview opens up more questions than it answers (similar to J&G postings we might add), we are still happy that we have another valuable local source with free access to the Treehouse.

 

Our last photo document adds nothing to the discussion, but we think Lord Roxton looks cute in the picture. Not very scientific, but our fans rarely complain about yet another Roxton photo.

Our readers have complained about the lack of analysis regarding Veronica. We were very reluctant to discuss her underwear preferences, because there are hardly any photo documents available. Thanks to an anonymous source (a woman from Minnesota who uses CAP as her board user name - but we can't tell you more, really!) we have now obtained the - to our knowledge - only existing glimpse into what lies beneath the tan leather top.

So is this enough to conclude that Veronica has a preference for white? Not at all. Can we completely dismiss the theory that the jungle beauty is actually an underwear foe and wore this bra only to help with one of Professor Challenger's experiments? He has not officially confirmed that he was working on a study on garments which help lessening the sometimes uncomfortable jiggle effect when females run through the jungle. Wouldn't it be just like Challenger to invent the sports bra way ahead of its time? We think that this is not that unlikely. But whatever we think - our analysis is always based on hard scientific evidence. So let's keep the question open for discussion and hope for more pictorial evidence when future adventures of our heroes are being transmitted again into our living rooms.