He did not remember the rest of the face--perhaps the white clothes wrapped it around.

While the eyes struck him with awe, he had a curious idea that the thing had been interrupted in arranging its own winding sheet, and was waiting until he retired again to finish its toilet.

This was merely a grotesque side-current of thought.

He was held and awed by the surprise of the face, for those eyes seemed to him to belong to no earthly part of the old man who, he had been told, lay there dead.

Drawn by death or exhaustion as the face around them looked, the eyes themselves appeared unearthly in their large brightness.
He never knew whether his next action was urged more by fear, or by the strong sense of justice that had first prompted him to call back the carter as the proper person to deal with the contents of the coffin.
Whatever the motive, it acted quickly.