Burl was aware of wasps with stings nearly as long as his own body that could rapidly kill prey. The skulking tribe members of Burl had minimal fear of wasps since each species had a defined prey item. Invoking the horrifying screams of his grandfather, who had been attacked by a black-bellied tarantula years ago, he opened his mouth to scream. In addition to crickets, beetles, and spiders, Burl once spotted a swarm of large, red Amazon ants moving in a neat line across a blue-green mold that had emerged from the river. Under the same silky covering, the tarantula writhed in agony on Burl's spear point. He awaited the introduction of the poison fangs. Above the flames, moths, flying beetles, enormous gnats, and midges performed the death dance. Burl could see them as the flames drew closer to him. Moths beat the air fiercely with their wildly colored thirty-foot-spread wings. As they fixed their crazed attention on the blazing fires below them, their enormous eyes shone like carbuncles. It didn't matter to Burl that one large insect was consuming another. He kept vigil, his eyes darting from the cricket to the odd opening behind the trap.
Murray Leinster was the pen name of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an American author of science fiction who lived from June 16, 1896, until June 8, 1975. More than 1,500 short stories, essays, 14 film scripts, hundreds of radio plays, and television plays were all written and published by him. Leinster was the son of George B. Jenkins and Mary L. Jenkins, he was born in Norfolk, Virginia; his father was an accountant. He dropped out of high school and started working as a freelance writer before World War I. When his first tale was published in H. L. Mencken's The Smart Set, he was two months away from turning 20. He served with the American Army and the Committee of Public Information both during and after the conflict. Science fiction author William F. Leinster was known for his prodigious output, and his 1956 short story "Exploration Team" earned him a Hugo Award. Men into Space and The Time Tunnel are only a couple of the science fiction TV shows that he created tie-in literature. He worked for the American Office of War Information during World War II. Both Galaxy Magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published his tales.
