THE HAUNTED REEF

A boy's dreams of living in the South Pacific atolls- with a lot of adventure besides- are waved comfortably into life here. Dirk and Jim owned a motor lugger. Their home port is Papeete and they jump at chances for the salvage or fishing jobs that keep their boat running and themselves supplied with a living. When a particular one comes along- to locate a lost ship off the reefs of Kalatonga in the Tuamotu archipelago, Dirk and Jim are stuck with more to deal with than they had bargained for. Their overcoming of native superstitions, the treacherous captain of another ship, dangerous deep sea life- to discover the truth behind a treasure, are all good sea scenes with the color and variations of a lagoon below surface. Unfortunately the illustrations by R. M Powers, a mixture of shading and spatter techniques in black and white, are attempts at the dramatic that don't quite come off.