At the sight of the abyss below, a sudden panic caught Stuart's breath and heart, and he seemed to choke.
"What do we do?" he gasped.
"We jump!" said Cecil.
For a hundred feet they fell, and Stuart closed his eyes in that sickening dizziness which comes from a high fall.
Then he felt Cecil's arm grip him in a bear hug, and, a second after, his breast bone seemed to cave in, as a sudden jerk and strain came on the strap by which he was bound to the Englishman.
Instinctively he tried to squirm free, but the grip and the strap held firm.
Then the falling motion changed into a slow rocking see-saw, coupled with a sense of extraordinary lightness, and Stuart, looking overhead, saw the outstretched circle of a modern parachute.