Exclamations of astonishment came from every lip, for all had thought they were rescuing Frank.
"Great Jupiter!" gasped Bart Hodge. "It must be that Merriwell went clean down the face of the bluff!"
"An' thot manes he is a dead b'y!" declared Barney Mulloy. Fred Davis quickly leaped to the brink, and wildly shouted:
"Frank Merriwell! Frank Merriwell! Where are you? Frank! Frank!"
No answer save the moaning of the wind and the gurgle of the sea which came up from the base of the bluff, like the last strangling sound from the throat of a drowning person.
"He is gone!"
A feeling of unutterable horror came over the little party on the bluff, for they all seemed to realize what a terrible thing had happened.
Fred Davis fell to sobbing and moaning. Again and again he sent his voice down the face of the bluff, shouting into the darkness that hovered over the surging sea:
"Frank Merriwell! Oh, Frank, where are you? Frank! Frank!"
A night-bird swept past, and answered his shouts with an eerie cry; but the voice of Frank Merriwell did not come up out of the darkness below.