Sledge-O-Matic Memories

I've been reading a lot of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories lately, and the following passage stuck in my head for some reason:

Akhirom climbed to the top of the wall, balanced an instant, and dove off, spreading his arms like wings. His body described a long, steep parabola downward, missing the edge of the roof and plunging on down, the wind whistling in his garments, until he struck the stones of the courtyard below with the sound of a melon hit by a sledgehammer.

(from "Hawks Over Shem," by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp, collected in Conan the Freebooter. Ace Books, 1968).

Thanks to Gallagher, I have a pretty good idea of what that would sound like.