"Why! because he was dead.  Bob Saunders, that red-haired chap, was in the stern-sheets helping to catch the beggars with hitches, and as soon as he saw the big yellow-faced wretch stick his knife into poor old Blacksmith, he let drive at the brute with the boat-hook, twisted it in his frock, and held him under water.  He didn't mean to, but he was savage at what he had seen, for the lads like Smithy, and he held the beggar under water too long."