Abstract. A discrete faithful representation of the free group on g generators Fg into Isom+(H3) is said to be a Schottky group if (H3 u Di-)/T is homeomorphic to a handlebody Hg (where ZJr-is the domain of discontinuity for T 's action on the sphere at infinity for H3). Schottky space ¿fg , the space of all Schottky groups, is parameterized by the quotient of the Teichmüller spacê (Sg) of the closed surface of genus g by Modo(//f) where Modo(//Ä) is the group of (isotopy classes of) homeomorphisms of Sg which extend to homeomorphisms of Hg which are homotopic to the identity. Masur exhibited a domain ff(Hg) of discontinuity for Modo(//f)'s action on PL(Sg) (the space of projective measured laminations on Sg), so 3 §(Hg) = tf(Hg)/Modo(Hg) may be appended to 5?g as a boundary. Thurston conjectured that if a sequence {p¡: Fg -y Isom+(H3)} of Schottky groups converged into â §(Hg), then it converged as a sequence of representations, up to subsequence and conjugation. In this paper, we prove Thurston's conjecture in the case where Hg is homeomorphic to 5 x / and the length ¡^((dS)*) in N¡ = H3//?,(Fg) of the closed geodesic(s) in the homotopy class of the boundary of S is bounded above by some constant K.