There was a threadlike extension of metal from one scrap.
"Long Ago, Far Away"
William Fitzgerald Jenkins AKA Murray Leinster
Now as Betty crept cautiously about, peering and hoping with a half-fearing expectation, a sweet, threadlike wail trembled out toward her across the moonlit and shadowed space.
"The Eye of Dread"
Payne Erskine
She stood watching the wagon go along the path they had come by from the Port, until its roof dipped out of sight over the crest of the hill; then she went slowly back along the threadlike path among the trees.
"The Pioneers"
Katharine Susannah Prichard