Murray Leinster

Name: The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror
Author: Murray Leinster

The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

Summary

“The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror”, published in 1920, is a work by Murray Leinster. It explores elements such as Burl, spider and flies.

Quotes from The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (Murray Leinster)

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ And all the space of the wide snare was hung with threads, fine, twisted threads no more than half the thickness of Burl’s finger.
This was the trap of a labyrinth spider. Not one of the interlacing threads was strong enough to hold the feeblest of prey, but the threads were there by thousands. A great cricket had become entangled in the maze of sticky lines. Its limbs thrashed out, smashing the snare-lines at every stroke, but at every stroke meeting and becoming entangled with a dozen more. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ Burl was now a still more curious sight as a gayly colored object with a cloak shining in iridescent colors, the golden antennæ of a great moth rising from his forehead, and the hideous bulk of a gray spider for a burden.
He moved through the thin-stalked mushroom forest, and because of the thing he carried all creatures fled before him. They did not fear man—their instinct was slow-moving—but during all the millions of years that insects have existed, there have existed spiders to prey upon them. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ It came nimbly out of its tunnel-like hiding-place and approached the cricket. The cricket was struggling only feebly now, and the cries it uttered were but feeble, because of the confining threads that fettered its limbs. Burl saw the spider throw itself upon the cricket and saw the final, convulsive shudder of the insect as the spider’s fangs pierced its tough armor. The sting lasted a long time, and finally Burl saw that the spider was really feeding. All the succulent juices of the now dead cricket were being sucked from its body by the spider. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ Those which clustered about the banks of the pool were still as if carved from metal. Their huge, red eyes glowed, and their bodies shone with an obscene fatness. Flies are the most disgusting of all insects. Burl watched them a moment, watched the interlacing streams of light as they buzzed eagerly above the pool, seeking a place at the festive board. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ It thrashed about mightily, emitting at intervals the horrible, deep bass cry that the chirping voice of the cricket had become with its increase in size.
Burl breathed more easily, and watched with a fascinated curiosity. Mere death—even tragic death—as among insects held no great interest for him. It was a matter of such common and matter-of-fact occurrence that he was not greatly stirred. But a spider and his prey was another matter.
There were few insects that deliberately sought man. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ Most insects have their allotted victims, and will touch no others, but spiders have a terrifying impartiality. One great beetle devouring another was a matter of indifference to Burl. A spider devouring some luckless insect was but an example of what might happen to him. He watched alertly, his gaze traveling from the enmeshed cricket to the strange orifice at the rear of the funnel-shaped snare.
The opening darkened. Two shining, glistening eyes had been watching from the rear of the funnel. It drew itself into a tunnel there, in which the spider had been waiting. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ He drew near and poised his spear, his new and sharp spear, taken from the body of an unknown flying creature killed by the burning purple hills. Burl raised the spear and aimed its sharp and deadly point at the thick gray bulk he could see dimly through the threads of the tunnel. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Murray Leinster, The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (1920)

“ They were small as compared with the other insects. They had increased in size but a fraction of the amount that the bees, for example, had increased; but it was due to an imperative necessity of their race. ”

Murray Leinster

Summary

Quotes from The Mad Planet — V. The Conqueror (Murray Leinster)

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