It told the whole story.
A stream, not more than three or four feet in width, issued from the darkness, and, flowing some distance, went over a ledge of rock.

After falling three or four yards, upon some black and jagged rocks, it gathered itself together and resumed its journey into and through the gloom.

The tiny flame was unequal to the task of showing where the water entered and left the cave, and, as the boy was straining his eyesight in the hope of discovering something more, the blaze scorched his fingers, he snapped it out.
"That leaves only four," he mused, as he felt of the lucifers, "and I haven't got enough to spare.

I can't gain much by using them that way, and so I guess I'll hold on to these, and see whether the daylight is going to help me." He picked his way carefully along until he was nearly beneath the opening which had admitted him, where he sat down upon the dry, sandy ground to await the light of the sun.
"I don't suppose it will help much, for the bushes up there will keep out pretty much of the sunlight that might have come through; but I guess I'll have plenty time to wait, and that's what I'll do." He fell into a sort of doze, lulled by the music of the cascade, which lasted until the night was over.

As soon as he awoke, he looked upward to see how matters stood.
The additional light showed that the day had come, but it produced no perceptible effect upon the interior of the cave.