ng is
giving--it will tear away! Quick--grasp my wrists!"

Fred saw that the dark form was dangling immediately below, and,
without delay, he reached down and found a pair of hands which were
clinging madly to a stout vine.

The vine was really giving way, and Davis instantly grasped both wrists
of the imperiled lad.

"I've got him, boys!" he shouted, joyously. "Pull us up--pull us up!
I can hold fast if you pull us up at once! He has hold of one of my
hands now; he will not let go. Pull us up, and he will be saved!"

"Lay hold here!" shouted Hodge, grasping Davis by the shoulder. "Down
on your faces, two of you, and clutch Merriwell the moment he is lifted
far enough for you to grasp him. Work lively, now! Are you ready?"

"All ready," came the chorus.

"Then hoist away, lads, and up he comes!"

So, with a strong pull, the imperiled youth was dragged up over the
brink to safety, falling prostrate and panting at the feet of his
rescuers.

"Poor Bascomb!" exclaimed one of the boys. "I am afraid he is done
for!"

"Not much!" panted the boy they had just saved. "But that was a mighty
close call."

"What's this?" shrieked Fred Davis, dropping to his knees and staring
into the face of the fellow he had helped to rescue. "This isn't
Merriwell! It's Bascomb!"

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.

"It's no use!" came hoarsely and hopelessly from