I suppose we were on the verge of hysterics.
I pulled myself together and gave him a cigarette from my case.

And then, stretch as I would, I could not reach far enough to apply the match to the end of the cigarette between his lips.

He was unable to lift his head.

I lit another match and, like an idiot, put it between his fingers.

He nearly burned his moustache and his bandage, and would have burned his fingers had not the match--a wooden one--providentially gone out.