Night is advancing.

Come and rest! To-morrow we will search farther." The reporter got up, and guided by the boy went towards the cave.

On the way, Pencroft asked him in the most natural tone, if by chance he happened to have a match or two.
The reporter stopped, felt in his pockets, but finding nothing said, "I had some, but I must have thrown them away." The seaman then put the same question to Neb and received the same answer.
"Confound it!" exclaimed the sailor.
The reporter heard him and seizing his arm, "Have you no matches ?" he asked.
"Not one, and no fire in consequence." "Ah!" cried Neb, "if my master was here, he would know what to do!" The four castaways remained motionless, looking uneasily at each other.
Herbert was the first to break the silence by saying, "Mr.Spilett, you are a smoker and always have matches about you; perhaps you haven't looked well, try again, a single match will be enough!" The reporter hunted again in the pockets of his trousers, waistcoat, and great-coat, and at last to Pencroft's great joy, no less to his extreme surprise, he felt a tiny piece of wood entangled in the lining of his waistcoat.

He seized it with his fingers through the stuff, but he could not get it out.

If this was a match and a single one, it was of great importance not to rub off the phosphorus.
"Will you let me try ?" said the boy, and very cleverly, without breaking it, he managed to draw out the wretched yet precious little bit of wood which was of such great importance to these poor men.