ble
astonishment, he lay on his back, with his arms sunk to his side and
resting on the deck, and his face upturned.

I stared at him from the door as if he was the Fiend himself. I could
scarce credit my senses, and my consternation was so great that I cannot
conceive of any man ever having laboured under a greater fright. I
faintly ejaculated 'Good God!' several times, and could hardly prevent
my legs from running away with me. You see, it was certain he must have
moved of his own accord to get upon his back. I was prepared for the
fire to thaw him into limberness, and had I found him straightened
somewhat I should not have been surprised. But there was no power in
fire to stretch him to his full length and turn him over on his back.
What living or ghostly hand had done this thing? Did spirits walk this
schooner after all? Had I missed of something more terrible than any
number of dead men in searching the vessel?

I had made a great fire and its light was strong, and there was also the
light of the lanthorn; but the furnace flames played very lively,
completely overmastering the steady illumination of the candle, and the
man's figure was all a-twitch with moving shadows, and a hundred
fantastic shades seemed to steal out of the side and bulkheads and
disappear upon my terrified gaze. Then, thought I, suppose after all
that the man should be alive, the vitality in him set flowing by the
heat? I minded myself of my own simile of the current checked by frost,
yet retaining unimpaired the principle of motion; and getting my
agitation under some small control, I approached the body on tiptoe and
held the lanthorn to its face.

He looked a man of sixty years of age; his beard was grey and very
long, and lay upon his breast like a cloud of smoke. His eyes were
closed; the brows shaggy, and the dark scar of a sword-wound ran across
his forehead from the corner of the left eye to the top of the right
brow. His nose was long and hooked, but the repose in his countenance,
backed by the vague character of the light in which I inspected him,
left his face almost expressionless. I was too much alarmed to put my
ear to his mouth to mark if he breathed, if indeed the noise of the
burning fire would have permitted me to distinguish his respiration. I
drew back from him, and put down the lanthorn and watched him. Thought
I, it will not do to believe there is anything supernatural here. I can
swear there is naught living in this shi