guessed they hunted shell
dwellers, for at times they dug energetically in the gravel. Togi was
busied in this way now, the sand flowing from under her pumping legs,
her claws raking in good earnest.

And it was Togi's excavation which brought Shann a first ray of hope.
Her excitement was so marked that he believed she was in quest of some
worthwhile game and he moved across to inspect the pit. A patch of
brown, which had been skimmed bare by one raking paw, made him shout.

Taggi shambled downslope, going to work beside his mate with an
eagerness as open as hers. Shann hovered at the edge of the pit they
were rapidly enlarging. The brown patch was larger, disclosing itself as
a hump doming up from the gravel. The Terran did not need to run his
hands over that rough surface to recognize the nature of the find. This
was another shell such as had come floating in after the storm to form
the raw material of their canoe.

However, as fast as the wolverines dug, they did not appear to make
correspondingly swift headway in uncovering their find as might
reasonably be expected. In fact, a witness could guess that the shell
was sinking at a pace only a fraction slower than the burrowers were
using to free it. Intrigued by that, Shann went back to the waterline,
secured one of the lengths he had been trying to weave into his
failures, and returned to use it as a makeshift shovel.

Now, with three of them at the digging, the brown hump was uncovered,
and Shann pried down around its edge, trying to lever it up and over. To
his amazement, his tool was caught and held, nearly jerked from his
hands. To his retaliating tug the obstruction below-ground gave way, and
the Terran sprawled back, the length of wood coming clear, to show the
other end smashed and splintered as if it had been caught between
mashing gears.

For the first time he understood that they were dealing not with an
empty shell casing buried by drift under this small beach, but with a
shell still inhabited by the Warlockian to whom it was a natural
covering, and that that inhabitant would fight to continue ownership. A
moment's examination of that splintered wood also suggested that the
shell's present wearer appeared well able to defend itself.

Shann attempted to call off the wolverines, but they were out of control
now, digging frantically to get at this new prey. And he knew that if he
pulled them away by force, they were apt to turn those punishing claws
an