RUDI OF THE MOUNTAINS

It's set in the Swiss Alps. Larry is Spending the holidays with the family of his friend Peter. The two boys roam around the mountains, practicing their climbing and yodeling ""Isn't it glorious?"" On one of ""their excursions they discover that Rudi, a guide, is acting very strangely. Rudi's secret comes out. While huntlng a chamois (incidentally, Peter is eager to protect the goats) he had been overcome with fear, had taken a fall, and was obsessed with the idea that he would not be able to climb until he had successfully killed the guilty goat. That's one neurosis simply cleared up for the boys take one risk too many and then they can't make their way back down, and Rudi shuffles his way up the tricky verglas to rescue them. The pages are studded with exclamation points and exclamatory phrases, but they generally refer to the mountains rather than any personal crisis. The dialogue is very stolid and emotions never seem to coincide with the occasion. According to the dust jacket ""this vivid book... captures the compulsive excitement of climbing;"" the boys evidently have the mystique, but it certainly escapes the reader.