They expected to get dashed to death at the bottom as they went flying down past the different floors, and heard a fiendish chuckle from the Frenchman above their heads.
Like rats in a trap, the two detectives were held so they could do nothing to aid themselves.
All they could do was to wait for the final crash, and visions of the wrecked car and their bodies crushed to a pulp flashed across their minds.
The desperation of their situation was appalling.
The speed of their fall took their breath away and both instinctively grasped the sides of the car and clung to it tenaciously.
Down three stories they plunged.
Then there suddenly sounded a sharp "click."
The car paused, slid a few feet, then came to a sudden stop.
At the last moment the clutches flew out and tightened on the pilot rods, holding the falling car in midair.
The sudden stopping hurled the detectives to the floor, but they quickly scrambled to their feet, overjoyed at their salvation.