"Reaching near the beach I find that the tide has gone out and that
the Golondrina is more than fifty metres above the waves. 'I'll wait,'
I said to myself. But at this moment I see, thrusting its head out
from the tree-top that I was then on, a serpent; I seize a branch,
swing up and back for a while so that I can land as far as possible
from the lobster, when the damned branch breaks on me and I lose my
support."
"And what did you do then?" asked the barber.
"I took two somersaults in the air at a hazard."
"That was a useful precaution."
"Certainly I thought I was lost. On the contrary, I was saved."
"But how?" asked El Ariston.
"Very simple. For as I fell, with the branch in my hand, I landed
plump on the lobster, and as I came down with such a high velocity, I
pierced him right through with the branch and left him nailed to the
beach. The animal roared like a bull; I jumped into the Golondrina and
made my escape. But my vessel had sailed away. I began to row, but
there wasn't a sail in sight. 'I'm lost,' says I to myself. But thanks
to the lobster, I was rescued...."
"The lobster?" asked everybody in amazement.
"Yes sirree; a steamboat that was on its course many miles off, on
hearing the lobster's wails thought that this might be the signal of
some shipwrecked crew; it drew near the island, picked me up, and in a
few days I was back with my company.
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