Murray Leinster

Name: The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death
Author: Murray Leinster

The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

Summary

“The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death”, published in 1920, is a work by Murray Leinster. It explores elements such as Burl, army ants and fungus.

Quotes from The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (Murray Leinster)

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ The bodies of the main army had vanished—burnt to crisp ashes in the furnace of the hills.
There had been agony in that flame, dreadful agony such as no man would like to dwell upon. The insane courage of the ants, attacking with their horny jaws the burning masses of fungus, rolling over and over with a flaming missle clutched in their mandibles, sounding their shrill war-cry while cries of agony came from them—blinded, their antennæ burnt off, their lidless eyes scorched by the licking flames, yet going madly forward on flaming feet to attack, ever attack this unknown and unknowable enemy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ It was like the glow of all the many lights of a vast city thrown against the sky—but the last great city had moulded into fungus-covered rubbish thirty thousand years before. Like the flitting of airplanes above a populous city, too, was the flitting of fascinated creatures above the glow.
Moths and great flying beetles, gigantic gnats and midges grown huge with the passing of time, they fluttered and danced the dance of death above the flames. As the fire grew nearer to Burl, he could see them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ A mile away, the great black tide of army ants was advancing relentlessly. The great cabbage, the huge grasshopper, and all the stupid caterpillars upon die wide leaves would soon be covered with the tiny, biting insects. The cabbage would be reduced to a chewed and destroyed stump, the colossal, furry grubs would be torn into a myriad mouthfuls and devoured by the black army ants, and the grasshopper would strike out with terrific, unguided strength, crushing its assailants by blows of its powerful hind-legs and bites of its great jaws. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ The sky grew red in the west, though the sun did not shine through the ever-present cloud bank. Darkness spread across the sky. Utter blackness fell over the whole mad world, save where the luminous mushrooms shed their pale light upon the ground and fireflies the length of Burl’s arm shed their fitful gleams upon an earth of fungus growths and monstrous insects. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ His ears were keenly attuned to the sound of the army ants behind him, and it grew but little farther away.
The clicking roar continued, but began to be overshadowed by the buzzing of the flies. In Burl’s time the flies had no great heaps of putrid matter in which to lay their eggs. The ants—busy scavengers—carted away the débris of the multitudinous tragedies of the insect world long before it could acquire the gamey flavor beloved by the fly maggots. Only in isolated spots were the flies really numerous, but there they clustered in clouds that darkened the sky. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ And behind the wide belt of army ants—chaos. The edible mushrooms gone. The giant cabbages left as mere stumps of unappetizing pulp, the busy life of the insect world completely wiped out save for the flying creatures that fluttered helplessly over an utter changed landscape. Here and there little hands of stragglers moved busily over the denuded earth, searching for some fragment of food that might conceivably have been overlooked by the main body.
Burl was putting forth his last ounce of strength. His limbs trembled, his breathing was agony, sweat stood out upon his forehead. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ Burl caught the flash of the, flames upon two great iridescent spots upon the wide-spread wings. Shining purple and vivid red, the glow of opal and the sheen of pearl, all the glory of chalcedony and of chrysoprase formed a single wonder in the red glare of burning fungus. White smoke compassed the great moth all about, dimming the radiance of its gorgeous dress. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ Butterflies floating overhead on lazy wings, grubs waxing fat and huge upon the giant cabbages, crickets eating, great spiders sitting quietly in their lairs waiting with invincible patience for prey to draw near their trap-doors or fall into their webs, colossal beetles lumbering heavily through the mushroom forests, seeking food, making love in monstrous, tragic fashion. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (1920)

“ Another had tiny bright-red spots of a strange and malignant mushroom whose properties Burl did not know, scattered all over the purple with which it was covered.
Burl leaned heavily upon his club and watched dully. He could run no more. The army ants were spreading everywhere over the mass of fungus. ”

Murray Leinster

Summary

Quotes from The Mad Planet — IV. The Red Death (Murray Leinster)

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