"I owe my life to you," said the latter to Ibarra, who was wrapping himself up in blankets and cloths.

The pilot's voice seemed to have a note of sadness in it.
"You are too daring," answered Ibarra.

"Don't tempt fate again." "If you had not come up again--" murmured the still pale and trembling Maria Clara.
"If I had not come up and you had followed me," replied Ibarra, completing the thought in his own way, "in the bottom of the lake, _I should still have been with my family!_" He had not forgotten that there lay the bones of his father.
The old women did not want to visit the other corral but wished to return, saying that the day had begun inauspiciously and that many more accidents might occur.

"All because we didn't hear mass," sighed one.
"But what accident has befallen us, ladies ?" asked Ibarra.

"The cayman seems to have been the only unlucky one." "All of which proves," concluded the ex-student of theology, "that in all its sinful life this unfortunate reptile has never attended mass--at least, I've never seen him among the many other caymans that frequent the church." So the boats were turned in the direction of the other corral and Andeng had to get her _sinigang_ ready again.