The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-06

be trying out here. Sally did not even know where he was. What had become of him. She told her. self she did not care. "Of course we'll go," she said to Corey. T wouldn't miss it for anything. No matter how much it might make her remember. She had asked for it, hadn't she? She wanted to be thoroughly cured of all memories forever.
 That next day could not have been more perfect. Not a cloud in the sky, the scene like carnival with its hundreds Of rainbow-hued spectators at the foot of the mountain where the contest would take place. The dazzling sweep of white snow, the high, winding, smooth down-tr
 There were several events sched- uled, langlauf, or cross-country, jumping and down-hill, slalotn course with its flags forming gates and zigzag flushes for an obstacle race.
 If she closed her eyes Sally al- most could have imagined that some one of the contestants might have been Dan. But none of them, she told herself, sizing up their performances, could equal him. Besides, she would not close her eyes. She would not think of Dan. Not any more. Not here where 1t seemed as though she could not keep from thinking of him every minute. Where, in spite of all stern resolutions, all laughter and pretense, that old familiar ache weighed down on her again.
 "Why, look who's that?" someone in Corey's party asked, even as Sally Blair had voiced much the same question over a year ago. Everyone was looking up at the figure of the young man poised on the edge of the steep drop, making ready for the jump, the swift down. ward flight. A figure that made 1t so gracefully, so effortlessly, that 1t was sheer joy to watch the sym metrical beauty of movement.
 Sally had no need to ask who 1t had been. She knew before who heard the answer. There was only one person who could ski as that boy had, commanding such trib- ute. But 1t could not - it simply could not be Dan! She dared not believe her eyes, though she had not closed them. She dared not believe the hammering of her heart that yet would not be denied.
 That's Dan Reynolds" someone else in the crowd said. To which another made response, "Yes; he's the most promising runner-up for the Olympic choice. There's no one who can match him."
 Did you know Dan would be here?" Sally asked Corey in low tone. Her eyes wore @ dangerous bright look; the warm color flooded her lovely face, as she turned to him.
 T did not" Corey said. That was bad break for him. If he had dreamed Reynolds would en- ter this meet he never would have planned this party or brought Sally here. Though maybe it was just as well, at that. Docs it make any difference if he is here, my sweet?" Corey asked lightly
 None whatever!" Sally said. The Sally who wore Corey's ring underneath her fur-lined mitten; who claimed she no longer be- lieved in the existence of per- son named Dan. But that other Sally, whose heart pounded so madly now, said 1t made all the difference in the world, in all of the worlds in the universe, in fact.
 Yes, even if that Sally was dead. If the new-old Sally never saw him again. Dan had won; he had licked the things that had tried to best him. Dan was King of the skis as he always had been.
 Oh, it was very difficult not to believe in a boy who had done what this boy had!
 Just as 1t proved impossible not to believe in what he did that day. As had been said of him, no one could begin to match him in any event. Dan carried of honors in all of them, jumping, down-trail, |