The Sasquatch Mystery

Camp on Champion Creek ● 1

    MART BELDEN TOSSED a log onto the campfire. Sparks exploded upward, flashing into brief, bright life against a starry sky.
    Hypnotized by the miniature fireworks her brother had set off, Trixie Belden murmured a regretful “ah-h” as the sparks descended into the ashes.
    The sound was echoed by her best friends, Honey Wheeler, Jim Frayne, and Diana Lynch; by her teen-age brothers, Brian and Mart; by her cousins, Knut, Cap, and Hallie Belden; and even by their chaperon, Miss Trask.
    “Good job, Mart,” said Miss Trask. “Not that I’m an expert on bonfires, by any means.”
    “It doesn’t take an expert,” Mart said, “to see that this is no ordinary smoke-in-your-eyes, ashes-in-your-food bonfire. It’s a fire with vitality... character. It’s—”
    “It’s an Idaho bonfire!” said Honey with a toss of her honey-blond hair.
    “What’s the difference?” Hallie drawled. “I seem to remember plenty of good picnic fires in New York.” While her parents had gone to a mining conference in Switzerland, Hallie had spent part of one summer with Trixie and her family at Crabapple Farm. Now Hallie’s parents were in South America, leaving their three teen-agers to welcome their New York friends to their favorite camping area.
    “My cousin has a point,” said Mart. “Even on Champion Creek in northern Idaho, fire is fire. As usual, you have your heat and visible light emanating from a body during the process of its combustion. Also as usual....”
    While Mart trailed off into one of his more pompous explanations, Trixie thought to herself, No, Mart , it’s not usual—not at all.
    Just beyond the reach of firelight, she could hear the stirrings and rustlings of the forest and its unfamiliar inhabitants. Day hunters settled into nests and burrows. Night predators prowled.
    She shivered a little and edged closer to Knut. Over six feet tall, Knut looked enough like Brian to be a brother instead of a cousin. Trixie felt comfortable with Knut, even though she hadn’t seen him for years—not until this very morning.
    Knut was from the handsome, dark side of the family that included her own father, Knut’s father, Brian, and Hallie. His slightly waved black hair was brushed back like bird wings at rest. Firelight glinted on his unexpectedly heavy glasses. Trixie had assumed that Knut would have something close to X-ray vision. After all, during Hallie’s visit, she had spoken Knut’s name with unabashed pride each time she mentioned him. On the other hand, Hallie called Cap “birdbrain,” and that didn’t fit, either.
    Trixie pictured a meeting between her banker father and this Idaho nephew. Capelton Belden lay on the ground, feet toward the fire, while the rest of the group perched on logs and flat stones. The two would like each other, although Peter Belden would probably disapprove of Cap’s long brown hair tied with a leather thong at the nape of a strong neck. From the minute she and the others had stepped off the plane that morning in Wallace, Idaho, Trixie had been aware that both Brian and Mart were trying not to notice Cap’s swinging ponytail.
    Cap wore Indian moccasins. His leather jacket dangled fringes. Without appearing outlandish, Cap fitted the here and now. The here was a camp high in Idaho’s mountains. The now was a starlit August Monday night.
    Trixie was ecstatic over this sudden break in the end-of-summer routine on Crabapple Farm. Less than two days ago, she had been scalding and skinning tomatoes for canning, a job she loathed. And now she was almost the width of the continent away from the Hudson River valley. Bless Honey’s father for his generosity! When Matt Wheeler had learned of his business conference in Seattle, he had filled the vacant seats of his company’s plane with the Bob-Whites of the Glen, the club made up of Trixie and her friends.
    It had not been difficult to persuade Miss Trask to accompany them. The manager of the Wheeler estate was eager to learn more about the Idaho wilderness. Because she so seldom interfered with their plans, Miss Trask was always the Bob-Whites’ first choice for chaperon.
    Dan Mangan was the only Bob-White who had not been able to fly west, due to his temporary job as counselor at an upstate New York boys’ camp.
    Recalling that Dan and Hallie had become good friends during Hallie’s eastern visit, Trixie called across the circle, “Hallie, Dan said to tell you ‘hi.’ He wishes he could have