"Do you plan to play in the tournament?"

"Yes, if the doctor says I may, and providing I qualify."

Bartescue smiled. "Your score was one of the lowest turned in. You qualified easily."

"I was hoping to," she said. "Are you competing in the men's tournament tomorrow?"

"Oh yes, and I'm counting on winning the cup !"Bartescue announced. "I went out for a practice round this morning and shot a sixty-nine. I'm just coming into my game," he boasted. "I doubt if anyone here will be a match for me unless I go into an unexpected slump."

The girls found his bragging decidedly distasteful, but listened politely.

"May I treat you to ice cream?" he said as the four reached the hotel entrance. He seemed offended when Nancy declined.

When the girls gained the privacy of their adjoining bedrooms, Bess chuckled. "At least he didn't see the bra.s.s chest."

Nancy immediately tried to pry open the chest with a nail file but the lid would not budge.

"We need something with a sharp point," George declared as she studied the little chest. "If only we had an ice pick or something with a-"

Nancy sprang to her feet, her eyes full of excitement.

"Why didn't I think of it before?"

Without waiting to explain, she dropped the chest into George's lap and ran from the room.

She hurried through the hotel lobby to find a tool with which to pry open the lid. As Nancy pa.s.sed the flower shop, she paused a moment to admire the beautiful display in the window.

"It would be nice for me to send Bess and George each a bouquet," she mused. "They admired mine so much. They should have some of their own." She grinned.

Impulsively Nancy entered the shop, where she purchased two bouquets to be delivered immediately to her friends.

"Shall I include your name?" the clerk inquired politely.

"No, just write 'From A Friend.' "

Nancy knew that Bess and George would recognize her handwriting and thought it would be fun to tease them. She watched as the clerk wrote the message on two cards. Nancy picked up one and looked at it curiously.

"Your handwriting looks familiar," she said.

"I sometimes write cards for my customers. Did someone send you flowers from my shop?"

"Yes, I received a dozen roses from a man named Martin Bartescue."

"Oh, are you Miss Drew?"

"Yes, I am."

"I wrote the card that went with your flowers," the clerk recalled. "Mr. Bartescue requested me to do so."

"I see," Nancy murmured, without disclosing by her tone that the information had special significance. She paid for the fiowers and left.

As she pa.s.sed the registration desk, the hotel clerk motioned to her. "Miss Drew, the tournament chairman asked me to give you this," he said and handed her a sealed envelope. To her delight, it contained an invitation to enter the official compet.i.tion.

Excitedly Nancy hurried on to the caddy house, where her golf bag and spiked shoes were. Bess and George were mystified when their friend returned to the cousins' room holding the shoes and an envelope.

"Sharp gear!" Bess quipped. "What do you intend to do with those?"

Nancy laughed. "Could you ask for a better implement than a spike?" Almost in the same breath, she asked, "Aren't you curious about this too?" She showed them the letter and then turned her attention to the bra.s.s chest.

Holding it firmly between her knees, she inserted a row of the spikes of one shoe under the edge of the lid, then used the other shoe as a hammer.

As she paused for a moment, Nancy remarked, "The lid on this mystery chest is stubborn."

Bess said, "Why don't you stop for a while? It's almost dinnertime. We should dress."

Reluctantly Nancy agreed.

The girls had just finished changing when a boy appeared at the door bearing two boxes from the florist shop.

"They're for Nancy, of course." Bess sighed wistfully. "Barty is a pest but at least he's generous."

George looked at one of the boxes. "This is addressed to me!" she cried in surprise. "There must be some mistake."

Nancy thoroughly enjoyed herself as she watched the two girls open their boxes. So far they did not suspect that she had sent the flowers.

"Oh, what a lovely bouquet!" Bess exclaimed in delight, putting her face close to the yellow roses in it. "Who could have sent it?"

George was peering at the attached card. "'From A Friend,' " she read.

"And mine is the same," Bess added.

"Are you sure you haven't been hiding something from me?" Nancy asked teasingly.

The little game went on for some time. Then Nancy's broad smile betrayed her.

"Nancy Drew, you sent these flowers!" Bess suddenly accused her.

"Well, yes, I did."

"It was great of you to do this, Nancy," Bess declared.

George thanked her, saying it was a "sweet" joke-the kind she liked.

"I did myself a good turn by visiting the florist. I found out something interesting about Barty."

"The lid on this mystery chest is stubborn," Nancy remarked

Nancy explained that the girl in the flower shop had written the note which accompanied her roses.