"Birkett's gone under," he shouted frantically. "His boat tipped just above the Yellowbanks!"
Anyone who doubted his cries was easily convinced by his bedraggled appearance, and it did not require his explanation that he had gone into the water after Birkett to explain the wetness of his clothes. He told hastily that the old man fought hard, that he had had to hit him finally, and had at last reluctantly to let him go in order to save himself.
As he led the rowboats to a spot a hundred yards above the entrance to Hiney's Slough, where in the quiet water the two bodies still lay. Blum was enjoying the irony of the knowledge that his twelfth body would be that of his old rival. He broke into speech again, excitedly telling about the accident, and explaining that the boat had long since gone downstream, swept away by the powerful current in which it had tipped. He pointed out approximately the place where the accident had occurred, and went glibly over his story a third time. Then he left the searchers, and pulled into the current toward the dark waters where Birkett had actually gone down.
That much Sac Prairie was later able to piece together. What happened after that is more obscure and fraught with horrific suggestion. It is certain that he went downstream, and equally certain that he seemed to be heading for Hiney's Slough, though one or two disputed this point later. Despite the moon, it was difficult to observe Blum's progress downstream, for he was soon lost in the very heavy shadows on the quiet water surrounding the slough's junction with the river.
In the babble of sound made by the searchers above the slough Blum might have called for some time and not have been heard, though this is doubtful. At any rate, during a lull in the conversation, someone picked up the sound of frantic calling. Everyone stood and listened. Once again came a sharp call, in a voice which was immediately identified as Hank Blum's. The call was heavy with horror and fear. Then another call began to sound, but was abruptly stopped, almost as if it had been rudely shut off by a hand clapped over the lips thru which it came.
The boats immediately pulled away toward Hiney's Slough.
At first there was nothing to be seen except the bottoms of two overturned boats, one of which was Blum's, the other Birkett's. Then someone saw the body of Ender over against one bank, apparently just washing up from deep water. Quite near it, partly submerged, they found the bodies of Hank Blum and Fred Birkett.
Blum was dead, but he had not been drowned. He had been strangled. For when the horrified searchers pulled him out of the water, they found Fred Birkett's dead fingers sunk deep in the flesh of Blum's neck.
Birkett had found his twelfth corpse.
