He could not find it; he rummaged the pockets of his trousers, but, to his horror, he could nowhere discover the box.
"Here's a go!" said he, looking at Herbert.

"The box must have fallen out of my pocket and got lost! Surely, Herbert, you must have something--a tinder-box--anything that can possibly make fire!" "No, I haven't, Pencroft." The sailor rushed out, followed by the boy.

On the sand, among the rocks, near the river's bank, they both searched carefully, but in vain.
The box was of copper, and therefore would have been easily seen.
"Pencroft," asked Herbert, "didn't you throw it out of the car ?" "I knew better than that," replied the sailor; "but such a small article could easily disappear in the tumbling about we have gone through.

I would rather even have lost my pipe! Confound the box! Where can it be ?" "Look here, the tide is going down," said Herbert; "let's run to the place where we landed." It was scarcely probable that they would find the box, which the waves had rolled about among the pebbles, at high tide, but it was as well to try.

Herbert and Pencroft walked rapidly to the point where they had landed the day before, about two hundred feet from the cave.