Latest / Weird Tales Presents: Web of the Spider! / Fairy Gossamer by Harry Harrison Kroll

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Fairy Gossamer by Harry Harrison Kroll · Weird Tales Presents: Web of the Spider!

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  Section three of Weird Tales presents Web of the Spider. This is a LibriVox
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  recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Benjamin harton Weird Tales
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  presents Web of the Spider. Fairy Gossamer Fairy Gossamer by Harry Harrison Kroll.
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  If you find spider gossamer in the autumn of the year, when the spider
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  balls hatch and the young go forth into the world, it's a sign that
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  the fairies are leading you on to good fortune, old folks, saying.
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  William Thompson sat at the opening of the sinkhole, absorbedly watching tiny strands of
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  spider gossamer issue from the orifice. He had come to this spot in the
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  cavernous limestone region of Kentucky in search of a specimen of the genius Eremnes,
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  the most brilliantly colored of temperates on spiders, his college work in biology at
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  Vanderbilt necessitating his discovering such a specimen. Hearing of a legend current in his
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  neighborhood about spiders, he had come here in the hope of satisfying his requirement.
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  The story related that years ago one Israel Hicks, suddenly gone crazy,
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  in believing himself pursued by an evil spirit, had come out here and begun
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  the breeding of spiders, that he might devise a web to entangle the demon
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  that vexed him. It was Averred that, previous to his going insane,
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  that he had been a wealthy bluegrass farmer, and many believed that he possessed
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  considerable riches at any rate. The last of his name and kind, he
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  had come here and lived alone, spending his time and energies in catching spiders
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  and shutting them up in a mysterious insectory which he n never permitted any one
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  to visit. And now the old man had been dead these many long years,
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  and likely was well rid of his evil spirit, and none would probably
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  ever know much more about him and his peculiar hallucination. There are spiders somewhere
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  in this locality, William told himself, as he continued to observe the strands
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  of silk wafted up out of the hole. And if I could investigate down
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  in that sinkhole, I believe I might just find what I am looking for.
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  He tried getting down into the hole, but apparently it would not readily
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  admit passage of his body. Strange that draft, he continued to meditate.
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  I never knew one of these glacial blowouts to have a draft. Before he
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  tested the strength of the air current by casting some leaves into the opening.
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  These fragments rose several feet above the surrounding ground level before the force of the
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  air was sufficiently modified to permit them to drop. Well. Well, he
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  said, thoughtfully, if I could find the other end of this passage,
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  the chances are that I would find my spider. He began an examination of
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  the sinkholes near by, of which there were many, For in a past
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  geological age, a great explosion of natural gas had honeycombed the entire under surface
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  region, these pits being outlets of the force of the detonation. But none
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  of the others appeared to have a draft. An ignited match a certain test
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  of air movement burnt over them, as undisturbed as a candle flame in a
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  closed room. It was apparent to William that there was no direct connection between
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  the pit with a draft and its kindred near by. The air has to
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  get in some way, though he reasoned, if it comes out, it
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  surely has to go in one of the holes hereabouts, has to have a
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  downward draft. But no amount of search revealed it. Presently. After an
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  extended exploration, he returned to the chimney hole. Israel Hicks, he recalled
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  meditatively, out of the traditions of this authority, as they had been recounted
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  to him, used to say that you never see gossamer except in the fall
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  of the year, it being the spinning of the new spider brood. Now
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  any idiot knows that where there is gossamer, there are spiders. I've got
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  to locate the other end of this hole. Likely as not. When I
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  do, I will have located old Man Hicks spider incubator. Ah wager that
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  it is one gloriously interesting place for a biologist. The idea fascinated him,
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  for the old lunatic was reputed to have had a fancy collection of spider's William
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  obtained a long slender stick and prodded down into the hole. He found by
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  the experiment that the passageway went deep into the earth and bent in the direction
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  of the old house several hundred yards away on a hill where the old man
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  had made his home. William scratched his head in perplexity. Did the hole
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  come out somewhere near or under the house. He dashed up the hill and
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  into the yard. An eager search of the abandoned enclosure, however, disclosed
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  no such hole as he looked for. He continued his search into the runeous
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  old house. The floor was gone, and he found an open cellar,
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  glaring vacantly back at the patches of sky that showed through the holes in the
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  clapboards. He stood baffled, for nothing of interest met his eyes. Then
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  suddenly he became aware across the spot where he stood on the stone cellar,
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  bottom of a draft that chilled his feet. Bending down for a test with
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  his hand, he discerned a steady air movement, fanning his feet and entering
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  a crack in the cobbles. By listening, he could even hear the sound
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  of it whistling into the hole. Aha, he ejaculated. The old lunatic
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  had a secret passageway down to the spider hatchery. Let's raise this rock and
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  take a peek inside. This he did, and there was disclosed, leading
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  deep into the cavernous maw of the earth. A natural tunnel. He had
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  his flashlight with him, and slipping down through the opening, he began the
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  descent. Presently, daylight behind him had disappeared. Another turn of the passageway
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  thrust him into stygian darkness. Down, down he went. Had he not
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  been familiar with caves, he probably would have lost his nerve and refused to
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  penetrate any further. Cobwebs hung everywhere, millions of them lodged here over the
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  long years since Old Israel Hicks had first introduced the spinners. There was no
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  question in William's mind that he had found the previously unknown spider hatchery of the
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  crazy old Loon. The chances were that he would find the specimen he sought,
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  since Hicks had been a connoisseur in his line of business and likely had
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  overlooked none of the types in the region. Presently, as he had surmised,
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  he arrived at a widening of the passageway, which in turn opened into
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  a large cavernous chamber. As he stepped down into the large room, quite
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  unexpectedly, a pivoted rock, not unlike some vast door to a sepoculture,
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  swung to behind him. He paused fearfully believing that his egress was cut off,
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  but far ahead of him, a speck of daylight reassured him. Evidently
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  the sinkhole came out into the cavern there, and he could make his escape
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  at the same outlet as the fairy Gossamer. He went on, flashing his
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  light on every hand. What a dreary, haunted den it was. The
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  endless walls of slimy, irregular ceiling were gray with the ash and webs of
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  innumerable spiders. Beads of moisture clung to many of the festoons, which besprinkled
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  him with chill showers. Literally thousands of the curious, agile creatures leaping out
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  into view for possible prey at his entrance, as suddenly and uncannily withdrew to
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  their silken refuges when he turned his light upon them, Their myriad cunning eyes
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  in that momentary scrutiny almost frightened him and caused a cold shudder to run up
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  his spine. Then, with a sudden and involuntary exclamation, he stopped.
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  He had found the prize, a beautiful eremnus, possessing perhaps the loveliest geometric
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  markings he had ever observed in the type almost as large as a silver dollar,
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  with long, graceful legs and a brilliant figure on its head and another
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  on its back, and intensely black eyes. His problem, now that he
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  had found it, was to snare it, and no easy problem would it
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  be, as he well knew, for the eremnus is as cunning as it
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  is beautiful, and as fearless and savage as it is cunning. Moreover,
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  William had no desire to risk being bitten by this gentleman. Although the type
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  is regarded as non poisonous or but mildly so. Nevertheless, there were authentic
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  cases where individuals were deadly venomous. He had with him a device manufactured from
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  a fishing meal section of hat wire and gauze, intended to capture insects.
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  With this contrivance, he began craftily stalking the prey. The spider retreated William,
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  following, then, with cunning suddenness, the creature darted down into a
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  crevice of the rock wall. Out of this retreat, William could not budge
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  him. No amount of mild persuasion appeared in the least to affect this crafty
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  gentleman. Finally, at his wits end, William as a last desperate expedient,
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  punched down into the crack with his reel. He desired the specimen alive,
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  but a dead one would be better than none. It was, as
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  he was to perceive, when too late, an ill advised move. Seemingly
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  the hordes of spiders were waiting for just such a signal. For sly they
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  were upon him in one, great, hungry mob. Great haired demons dropped
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  upon his head from above. They crawled across his unprotected face. He felt
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  them creeping up his trousers legs. Although he frantically brushed them off, slapping
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  them out of his eyes and trying in the darkness to stamp upon them,
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  his efforts seemed only to attract other packs of them. His mind worked rapidly.
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  Knowing the habits of spiders and the fact that they may go without food
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  for as long as a year and a half, and in such a state
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  are ravenous, He realized it would be only a question of time before they
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  would overpower him by their very numbers and devour his body. There in the
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  darkness, with no protection and only his flashlight to show the way, it
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  might seem a hopeless task to cope with them. Neither could he beat his
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  way back as he had come, for the pivoted rock cut off his retreat.
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  He could only strive forward, knocking the spiders from his face as he
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  went, and trust to Providence to affect his escape by way of the chimney
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  like suckhole. He therefore began moving forward as best he might, his hat
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  pulled low over his eyes, his coat collar turned up, and his free
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  hand acting as a relentless brush against the stinging, voracious racnts. He sensed
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  dimly that the nebula of light increased on the opposite side of the chamber as
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  he approached that quarter. In fact, it shortly began to take definite shape.
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  If he could hold out for another span of moments, he would make
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  it. But already he was feeling sensations of pain in all parts of his
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  body, and he was becoming giddy. Whether from fear or poison, he
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  could not be sure, but his hands and face were swelling from bites.
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  And then he stopped in frozen horror. Immediately in the opening that would give
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  him egress from this terrible place to the good, open sunshine above, he
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  saw the form of the most gigantic spider he had ever beheld. From where
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  he stood, even after making allowance for his unreliable perception, it seemed to
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  measure two feet across. It belonged to a genus about which he had read,
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  but which had never been seen before by the eyes of a white man,
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  the monster golden spider, native of the tropics. Where the light fell
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  upon it from above, it gave back an untarnished reflection of the precious metal
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  from which it derived its name. Curiously enough, as he beat his way
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  closer in spite of the hazard, he found the small pests to be dropping
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  off and falling back. He was in the circle of light, too,
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  and that aided him in brushing them off. Many he succeeded in crushing under
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  his heels, and well might this smaller fry retire, William vaguely reasoned,
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  for this fat, old demon had sufficient capacity to devour them as they came.
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  He took a fresh, firm grip upon his reel and approached nearer for
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  the inevitable conflict he would have to fight here, and to the deadly finish,
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  either he or the giant spider must fall. Nor did the creature move
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  as he erept nearer and nearer its golden eyes never flinched. It still maintained
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  its masterful composure. As William, staking his fate upon one accurate cut of
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  the steel fishing rod, prepared to cleave its body in twain with the tubing.
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  His aim proved true. He saw even before the blow fell it descended
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  clean and sharp across the middle of the spider's body. And then William,
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  almost collapsing from the let down of his nerves, saw something he could not
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  bring himself for a moment to believe. Instead of the creature writhing about in
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  death agony, it scattered, not unlike an operation, with a sudden metallic
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  clanking and jingling. Until his senses returned to him and the weakness of his
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  legs gave way to some degree of composure. William was unable to examine the
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  results of this singular metamorphosis. When he did, he found the spider to
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  have been made of golden coins, in an artful similitude of the insect.
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  When able to think constructively, he conjectured the why of it all. Old
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  man Hicks had had two gods, his money, about which but few knew,
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  and spiders which he bred and loved. He had placed his money here
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  under the protection of the The arranging of the coins in form of one of
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  them was a curious slant of the old man's fat and true to their trust.
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  All of these long years, the spiders had all but succeeded in their
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  task. William got out of the cave as quickly as he could, but
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  not before he had collected the coins in his pockets and the overplus in his
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  hat. Out in the glorious open sunshine, he breathed free, finding that
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  none of the bites inflicted upon him would result in more than temporary discomfort.
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  The adventure recalled to his mind two curious superstitions about spiders, one that the
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  creatures will not attach their webs to or come near gold, and the other
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  that if you find the gossamer in the autumn of the year, when the
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  spider balls hatch and the young go forth into the world, it's a sign
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  that the fairies are leading you on to good fortune. End of Section three. Spider Gossamer