“Wow! It sure looks like him!” Mike said. “Let’s make like a crab and pinch him!”

The man with the bushy beard from the day before was standing behind a metal food stand just a little farther down the hallway. His baseball cap had a big white crab on it. A sign above the stand read OLD COVE CRAB SOUP.

A line of people was in front of the stand waiting for crab soup. The fans kept the man with the beard busy filling large paper cups with hot crab soup. The stand had a lower counter in front and large vats of crab soup on the left side. At the back of the stand was a small work area with a few boxes and other things on it.

“We need to find the glove,” Kate said. “I bet he’s got it hidden somewhere in the stand. He has to be able to take it out of the stadium without anyone seeing it.”

“Let’s sneak up behind the stand and snoop around,” Mike said. “It looks like he’s busy up front serving customers. I’ve got an idea.”

Mike walked in the direction of the stand. But about halfway there, he moved over near the back wall. Then he squatted down and rocked back while extending his arms. He plopped his hands on the ground behind him and started to scuttle along the floor doing a crabwalk. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s pretend we’re playing crab soccer!”

“Great idea!” Kate said.

Mike pulled his tennis ball out of his pocket and rolled it over to Kate as she dropped down near the wall and started to do a crabwalk, too. He and Kate scurried along the wall. Mike kicked the ball closer to the back of the crab stand, and then Kate kicked the ball. They continued until they were just behind the stand.

“There! We need to look at those!” Mike said. He pointed to a dark area behind the stand where there were stacks of large white buckets. “He could be hiding the glove in one of them!”

Mike grabbed his tennis ball and stood up. Kate shifted to her knees and reached for one of the white plastic buckets. Its white-and-blue label said OLD COVE CRAB SOUP. She popped the top off and looked inside. It was empty and smelled like crab soup. “Yum!” Kate said as she put the cover back on and placed it to the side.

Mike did the same from the other side of the pile. They worked through the buckets one by one until they met in the middle.

“There’s definitely no glove in those buckets,” Mike said. “We need to look somewhere else.” He surveyed the area. “The only other place he could be hiding the glove is in the stand,” he said. “Here, I’ve got another idea. Let’s play catch!”

Mike tossed the tennis ball to Kate, and she tossed it back to him. He took a few steps backward along the side of the stand while they continued to throw the ball back and forth. In between throws, they scanned the inside of the stand for possible hiding places.

The front of the stand held only the cash register, cups and spoons, and large pots of soup. At the back of the stand was a counter filled with newspapers, some plastic bags, a thermos, a bag of pretzels, and a pizza box.

Kate caught the ball and walked over to Mike. The line in front of the stand had gone down to one person. The man behind the counter had just handed the fan a cup of soup and taken her money. “Maybe it’s under the newspapers,” she said. “I’ll keep him busy up front. You lean over the edge of the stand and check.”

Mike nodded. “Okay,” he said.

Kate headed for the front counter and waited for the other fan to finish. Mike slowly walked over to the back side of the stand. If the man turned around, he would clearly see Mike spying.

The customer in front took her change and walked away. Kate stepped up to the counter and winked at Mike.

“Can I please try samples of the different soups?” Kate asked.

As the soup man reached for plastic spoons to give Kate a taste, Mike darted to the side of the stand. He quietly ran his hands over the newspapers on the back counter and flattened them down. There was nothing under them.

The soup man offered Kate a second taste of soup.

Mike leaned farther over the wall of the stand and stuck his hand inside the pretzel bag. It struck something sharp and hard. He pulled out a pretzel stick. He stuck it in his mouth, and then motioned to Kate to keep going.

Mike leaned back over the low wall and grabbed for the pizza box, but his fingers just scraped the edge of the box. He pushed up on his tiptoes and slowly inched the box closer. Mike checked the front of the stand. Kate was sampling more soup.

Mike pried the top of the pizza box up slightly. It was hard to see inside. He shifted the box and lifted the lid fully.

Inside the pizza box was an old, flat baseball glove!