This was the critical moment.

Already his eyes could look down upon the mystery that lay beneath that precipice.

And what lay revealed there?
Did his eyes encounter a spectacle of horror?
Did they gaze down into the inaccessible depths of some hideous abyss?
Did they see those jagged rocks, those sharp crags, those giant boulders, those roaring billows, which, in their imaginations, had drawn down their lost companion to destruction?
Such conjectures were too terrible.

Their breath failed them, and their hearts for a time almost ceased to beat as they sat there, overcome by such dread thoughts as these.
Suddenly a cry of delight escaped Ethel.

She was kneeling down beside Lady Dalrymple and Mrs.Willoughby, with her eyes staring from her pallid face, when she saw the stranger turn and look up.