valley toward the crouching factory.

"Your father wished you to stay here, sir. He said it would give you the feel of the place. On the desk there you'll find the letter he was writing to you just before he died."

"Thank you, Tom. That will be all for the present."

Jonathan picked up the envelope and ripped it open.

My beloved son: The words were penned in a Spencerian script which wavered ever so slightly.

I should have told you years ago all the things which you will find written here but I was afraid—afraid you would never return to take up the task which is now slipping through my fingers.

You were too young when you left here to understand the strangeness of this place. Suffice to say it killed your mother and is now killing me. It has a curse—placed on our line by Sir Jonathan Robertson. Now it is time for you to face that curse.

To start at the beginning: Sir Jonathan purchased this island from the Crown in 1709. He had discovered a vein of Lapis Lazuli here which was to make him and his descendants immensely wealthy. God pity them all.

The stone had to be worked just after it was taken from the mine and before it hardened by contact with the air, so Sir Jonathan conceived the idea of a colony and a factory right on the island.

He had served Queen Anne well, both as warrior and explorer, so he petitioned to purchase convicts from English prisons to work the mine and factory for him. That was a legitimate practice in those times. He received a shipment of some 200 prisoners of both sexes—ranging from debtors to murderers—and set them to work under an iron-fisted supervisor named Jock MacPherson.

At first MacPherson and the criminals fought each other bitterly. But the supervisor gave them better food than most had received in their lives, kept them working hard under heavy guard from dawn to dusk and did not hesitate to crop the ears and even the noses of incipient rebels. Within a few years they were behaving quite well....

Glancing up as he turned a page, Jonathan found that old Tom was standing behind him, reading over his shoulder.

"I said that would be all," he repeated firmly.

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