His profile was illuminated by the candle, and looked ghastly.

He had in his hands an auger of enormous size, and with this he was drilling a great hole through the ship's side, just below the water-mark; an act, the effect of which would be to let the sea bodily into the ship and sink her, with every soul on board, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
"I was stupefied; and my hairs stood on end, and my tongue clove to my jaws." Thus does one of Virgil's characters describe the effect his mind produced upon his body in a terrible situation.
Mr.Hazel had always ridiculed that trite line as a pure exaggeration; but he altered his opinion after that eventful night.
When he first saw what Wylie was doing, _obstupuit,_ he was merely benumbed; but, as his mind realized the fiendish nature of the act, and its tremendous consequences, his hair actually bristled, and for a few minutes at least he could not utter a word.
In that interval of stupor, matters took another turn.

The auger went in up to the haft.

Then Wylie caught up with his left hand a wooden plug he had got ready, jerked the auger away, caught up a hammer, and swiftly inserted the plug.
Rapid as he was, a single jet of water came squirting viciously in.

But Wylie lost no time; he tapped the plug smartly with his hammer several times, and then, lifting a mallet with both hands, rained heavy blows on it that drove it in, and shook the ship's side.
Then Hazel found his voice, and he uttered an ejaculation that made the mate look round; he glared at the man who was glaring at him, and, staggering backward, trod on the light, and all was darkness and dead silence.
All but the wash of the sea outside, and that louder than ever.
But a short interval sufficed to restore one of the parties to his natural self-possession.
"Lord, sir," said Wylie, "how you startled me! You should not come upon a man at his work like that.