CH and first countable, countably compact spaces

We show that it is consistent with the Continuum Hypothesis that first countable, countably compact spaces with no uncountable free sequences are compact. As a consequence, we get that CK does not imply the existence of a perfectly normal, countably compact, non-compact space, answering a question of Nyikos (Question 287 in the numbering of van Mill and Reed, Open Problems in Topology, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1990, p. 127). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.