kid," Jean Fredricks said drily. "Except for our invincible Farrell, here, who has just renewed her lease on top spot by no less than four big fat strokes, practically the whole damn field is tied for second place. Incidentally, how did the other half of your twosome make out-you were paired with Clare Emerson today, weren't you?"

"Oh, her!" Torchy said scornfully. "Say, who is she, anyway? Local talent, I heard, but I never saw any of these home town amateurs shoot a game like that before."

"Good?"

"Yeah, or else shot with luck.. Wound up with a 72. But what a lousy disposition! All the time bitching about something. If I'd been her caddy, I'd have let her have a five iron right in the teeth. And you'd have thought we were playing a match, she was watching my score closer than she was her own. And when she saw she couldn't catch me, I thought there for a minute she was going to snap her snood! Still-she's pretty good. For an amateur, that is," Torchy added condescendingly.

Betty Dobson dipped her fingers into the spilled cologne and dabbed it daintily behind her ears. "She's no amateur, kid. She was collecting those pretty pink checks when you were still playing jacks."

"So were all the rest of you old bags-that's why I'm shooting 67s today and you're not," Torchy chortled gleefully. "You all might just as well retire to your rockin' chairs and rest your creaking bones tomorrow, on account of I am going to beat the cottonpickin' pants off the whole bunch

one

of you-for the honor of dear old Dubuque and all the Kovacs in Poland! And the money, of course."

"Oh, for God's sake!" Toni groaned. "Come on, girls, let's get out of here before we get mired in the stuff! I'll see if I can snare us a table in the bar, Dana. "

Dana stood in the shower a long time, letting the hot needles. of spray beat against the fatigue in her strong body. She smiled as she heard Torchy Kovac's lusty baritone rendition of The Halls of Montezuma over the rush of water in their adjoining showers.

The irrespressible 19-year-old fresh from the not-very-stiff corn country competition where she had been something of a sensation, was a great favorite. Her bubbling vitality and unfailing high spirits had the effect of a fresh spring breeze in the jaded, cynical atmosphere of tension-frayed nerves and ancient feuds. Dana wished with all her heart that Torchy would make good her outrageous boast but she knew that there was very little chance of it. The youngster was still very erratic, cheerfully mixing eagles with double-bogies, usually managing to come in about tenth.

But of all the youngsters Dana had seen come and go (or stay) in the past ten years, Torchy Kovac was the only one she felt might someday hold the unique position she now held. However, it would take several more years of seasoning before Torchy would be collecting those pretty pink checks with any regularity.

I wonder how much of that exuberance will be left in ten years, Dana thought. She knew that most of it would be gone long before