Prepared as he was, in a measure, for something strange, he never bargained for what happened. It was as if he had been fired from some catapult of the ancient Romans. Through the air he hurtled, like some great flying animal, covering fifty feet from a standing jump.
"Say, that's great!" yelled Mark. "Here I come, and I'll beat——"
He did not finish, for a cry of horror came from Jack.
"I'm going to fall into a crater—a bottomless pit! I'm on the edge of it!" yelled the lad who had jumped.
And, with horror-stricken eyes, Mark saw his chum disappear from sight beyond a pile of rugged rocks, toward which he had leaped. The last glimpse Mark had was of the life-torch, which Jack held up in the air, close to his head.
"Jack—in a crater!" gasped Mark, as he ran forward, holding his own life-torch close to his mouth and nose.
CHAPTER XXI
WASHINGTON SEES A GHOST
Advancing by leaps and bounds, and getting over the ground in a manner most surprising, Mark soon found himself on the edge of the great, yawning crater, into which his chum Jack had started to slide. I say started, for, fortunately, the lad had been saved from death but by a narrow margin.
As Mark gazed down into the depths, which seemed fathomless, and which were as black as night, he saw his friend clinging to a rocky projection on the side of the extinct volcano. Jack had managed to grasp a part of the rough surface as he slid down it after his reckless jump. He looked up and saw Mark.