outline
of the shrouded guest it might be taken for a freak formation of the
shell. A lustrous corpse is the little crab now as it lies in state
beneath the translucent pall.
That
this was a sure sign that the oyster had escaped once more from danger
with no more hurt than being condemned to carry her petrified enemy to
the end of her days is borne out by the fact that the diver has brought
her up with her valves tightly closed. Had she been killed or
grievously hurt by her efforts at self-preservation, the gates would
have immediately swung open, never to close again.
When
a diver on the ocean floor comes upon a pair of open oyster-shells, he
has arrived at the scene of a tragedy in which the oyster herself has
been the victim in her turn. The probability is that all sign of the
former occupant of the shells has gone. The action of the brine has
dulled the interior surfaces of the shells, once so bright, and has
softened them to such an extent that they crumble under the slightest
pressure. The castle is not only desolate, but a ruin. But there is no
sign of the successful invader.
The
chances are that a starfish committed the deed, a villain hardened to
the slaughter of oysters. According to one great authority on
pearl-fishing, in Ceylon waters alone more than five million oysters
are destroyed annually by starfish. Nature deals in astronomical
figures in all the lower forms of her sea-creatures, and five million
is a figure hardly worth talking about; but it lends color to the
presumption that few of her enemies are more formidable to the oyster
than the starfish.
Here
is an idea of a single such story as I might have listened to once
from the lips of enlightened grown-ups. Imagine the timid oyster
startled into barring her house against the world. She has taken quick
fright, but now she feels quite safe within her strong walls. The
cunning starfish outside, however, whose appetite has merely been
whetted by a momentary glimpse of his favorite food, is not at all
discouraged.
His methods are different from the other wretches who threaten the well-being of the oyster, and she can do nothing
