"How much I have to thank you for!" said the puppet.
"There is no necessity," replied the dog. "You saved me and I have now returned it. You know that we must all help each other in this world."
"But how came you to come to the cave?"
"I was lying on the shore more dead than alive when the wind brought to me the smell of fried fish. The smell excited my appetite and I followed it up. If I had arrived a second later—"
"Do not mention it!" groaned Pinocchio, who was still trembling with fright. "Do not mention it! If you had arrived a second later I should by this time have been fried, eaten and digested. Brrr! It makes me shudder only to think of it!"
Alidoro, laughing, extended his right paw to the puppet, who shook it heartily in token of great friendship, and they then separated.
The dog took the road home, and Pinocchio, left alone, went to a cottage not far off and said to a little old man who was warming himself in the sun:
"Tell me, good man, do you know anything of a poor boy called Eugene who was wounded in the head?"
"The boy was brought by some fishermen to this cottage, and now—"
"And now he is dead!" interrupted Pinocchio with great sorrow.