The Casebook of Constable Crab p.29

We hurriedly scrambled down the slippery rocks and soon saw--just in front of us but moving slowly around the edge of a mossy cliff-- Hermit's whelk shell house.

BUT it was moving purposefully!

SOMEONE or SOMETHING was INSIDE the shell!

...

The Casebook of Constable Crab p.28

"Wasn't empty!" I said--not TOO surprised since I suspected someone had stolen Hermit's house for their OWN habitation.

"Nah!" said the starfish, "Some critter was IN it all right--but it was something that didn't seem to FIT any too well."

"And how long ago was that?"

"A few minutes is all--it was heading downhill into the deeper water though--so it MAY be gone entirely!"

"Then QUICK Hermit! We'll try to head it off!"

And we scrambled down the stones through the weeds into the deeper sea.

...

The Casebook of Constable Crab p.27

We were soon IN the tide pool.

The water was fresh and clear.

I sauntered over to a scruffy starfish who was lying under a mossy rock near the shore and casually started a conversation.

"Hello there. Nice day isn't it. Have you been hanging out here long?"

"Hullo ", said the starfish, " Yeah, I been here all morning. Nuttin' much doing down here today! Say, you're Constable Crab, ain'tcha--what's happenin', Constable?"

"I'm here with my old friend Hermit Crab--seems like his house has gone missing--"

"Missing house, you say, well I haven't seen and houses running loose around here--hyuck! hyuck!"

"Well, you know old Hermit's habits, Mr. Starfish--his house was actually sort of an abandoned whelk shell."

"No kidding! I DID see a whelk shell a while ago--but it WASN'T empty!"

...

The Casebook of Constable Crab p.26

"Then the best thing to do--it seems to me," I said, "Is to return to the tide pool. We may find some clue there--"

And off we went!

...

The Casebook of Constable Crab p.25

"No. I don't know WHERE my dear little house is! I have no idea where it could be!" Hermit cried.

"Well then--WHERE did you see it last?" I asked.

"I was down in the tide pool--and of course it was WITH me since I usually carry it on my back--I just stepped out of it for a quick seaweed snack and when I returned--just a few moments later--it was--(sob!)--GONE!"

Here poor old Hermit was overcome with weeping. I felt pity and patted him on his antenna to show my fellow-feeling.

...

The Casebook of Constable Crab p.24

"Ah, yes--a cozy whelk shell..."

As an expert in The Law of the Sea, I knew very well that when some creature HAS something--it's HIS!

True, Hermit had been living in "his" whelk shell for quite a while, but the shell was really the shell of an unknown whelk! (Now gone AND forgotten!)

But I went on to ask the usual detective questions:

"Do you have any idea where your house might have gone--or any clues to where it might be now?"

...

"Don't worry, old fellow." I said, "We'll have your house back before you can say Jack Robinson!"

"I feel much better already with you on the case." smiled Hermit Crab, "You know I feel so--so--so exposed--without my little house. Besides, you know, though it isn't much as houses go-- it IS my very own little house..."

"Oh, so true, so TRUE!" I rejoined, "it is a sort of whelk shell as I remember, isn't it?"

"Yes! That's it exactly! My own lovely, cozy little whelk shell!" Hermit Crab said with moist eyes.

...

...