Explore "Message From Mars" by Clifford D. Simak on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The machines paid them no attention. No higher than a man's waist, they curiously resembled grotesque spiders. Gangling rods and arms sprouted out all over them and from their trunks sprouted waving, steel antennae.
Overhead hung a swarm of the metallic bugs evidently directing the work of making the rocket ready.