They procured fire by rubbing pieces of soft against pieces of hard wood; there was a quantity of both within their reach.
After a whole week of this confinement, Arthur Pym and the half-breed had succeeded, as we know, in leaving their hiding-place, securing a boat, and abandoning Tsalal Island, but William Guy and his companions had not yet found an opportunity to escape.
After they had been shut up in the labyrinth for twentyone days, the birds on which they lived began to fail them, and they recognized that their only means of escaping hunger--( they had not to fear thirst, for there was a spring of fresh water in the interior of the hill)--was to go down again to the coast, lay hands upon a native boat, and get out to sea.

Where were the fugitives to go, and what was to become of them without provisions ?--these were questions that had to be asked, and which nobody could answer.

Nevertheless, they would not have hesitated to attempt the adventure if they could have a few hours of darkness; but, at that time of year, the sun did not as yet go down behind the horizon of the eighty-fourth parallel.
Death would probably have put an end to their misery had not the situation been changed by the following events.
On the 22nd of February, in the morning, William Guy and Patterson were talking together, in terrible perplexity of mind, at the orifice of the cavity that opened upon the country.

They no longer knew how to provide for the wants of seven persons, who were then reduced to eating nuts only, and were suffering in consequence from severe pain in the head and stomach.

They could see big turtles crawling on the beach, but how could they venture to go thither, with hundreds of natives coming and going about their several occupations, with their constant cry of _tekeli-li_?
Suddenly, this crowd of people became violently agitated.