2.28b

Sherlock picked up Watson and swam away toward the reef. He explained on the way.

"Watson, you know I have been to the edge, between worlds."

"Yes. You've told me. It undulates like a mentally unsound ray, as I took it. Is this important?"

"Indeed, for the vessel I have just described rides the edge between worlds."

Watson was silent for a moment. He just fidgeted in Sherlock's grasp.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with your conclusion, Sherri. It seems like a lot of hookum to me. I mean, things have to breathe, right?"

"Right."

"And there's nothing to breathe up there."

"So far as we know."

Watson fell silent.

"And? Your conclusion?"

"I'm worried for you, Sherri."

"Whatever for?"
"Because I know you, and I suspect what you're about to do will not be pleasant."

"Poppycock."

Sherlock hauled up to 221b Flounder where he and Watson lived and set the crab down. He began rummaging through the evidence from their last few cases. Finally, he grabbed the large, smooth, spherical, translucent shell from the Adventure of the What is this Thing and settled it firmly beneath his arm. He again picked up Watson.

"I'm sorry, old pal. But somebody has to do it." He shoved the crab inside the shell and clapped one hand over the opening.

"LESTRADE!" Watson bellowed from inside the shell.

Sherlock squirted for the edge between worlds. Behind him, Watson could faintly hear Lestrade say "What?" The sallow policeman never much liked leaving the Yard, but this was an emergency.

"LESTRADE I'M BEING KIDNAPPED."

Somewhere below, he hoped, the nurse shark was rallying to charge after him, when in fact Lestrade had merely said "You mean crab-napped," and gone back to sleep.

Sherlock was rapidly approaching the edge now, and Watson was all the time more worried about what he intended. He didn't have to wonder long. Right before the surface, Sherlock hauled up and threw the shell with all his might at the edge. The shell popped out unceremoniously into the wide open of the other side with Watson still inside.