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                       THE VALLEY OF THE MASTERS

                      By CHARLES MINOR BLACKFORD

                 His sin was curiosity--his crime was
                 witchcraft--but Henry's real offense
                 against his strange world was that it
                 was dying--and he wanted it to live!

           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
             Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1961.
         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]


Henry stopped and squatted in the underbrush, well hidden from the
path but close enough to see the coming group. Within a minute they
became visible. There were twenty-five to thirty boys, girls and youths
walking slowly in ragged groups, talking and laughing. The youngest
were ahead, a group just entering their teen