THE GHOST OF SPIRIT RIVER

Not many kids believe in ghosts, especially not these three temporarily on their own in the Alaskan wilderness when their summer guide breaks his leg. Perry, Tim and Clay are tracking down the horses that escaped when their truck crashed; en route strange happenings confound them but they repeatedly reject the idea of supernatural interference. The branches they find tied together could explain away the monstrous footprint but what about the avalanche, the re-escaping horses, the hole in the boat? The going gets rougher: Perry, the least experienced, injures his ankle, but they divide the labor and benefit from the tenderfoot's prodigious reading habits when, after their supply runs out, he improvises menus from the neighborhood stores--nettles, dandelions, bear. The culprit is an Indian, resentful of the white man's invasion, and unfortunately the good timing that marks much of the book disappears in the capture scene, a rim-skirting hole-in-the-cave affair. The authors (not predictator Dixon) don't strain the maturity and friendship syndrome, and they do establish a comfortable pace.