Sure-dart

"Sure-dart" by F. H. Costello is a novel written in the early 20th century. It is a prehistoric adventure about a young hunter named Sure-dart, his friend Hop-foot, and their tribe, who struggle to survive amid dinosaurs and hostile neighbors in a primeval Colorado of steaming swamps and a vast inland sea. The story blends survival, tribal warfare, and monster hunting as the Rock-people face both colossal reptiles and a human enemy, the Fishers. The opening of Sure-dart sets the scene with a prefatory note explaining the liberties taken with science and a roster of the monstrous creatures to come. We meet Sure-dart and Hop-foot as they spy on a poisoned “death-beast,” glimpse a plesiosaur at the lake, and are chased to a “safety-hole,” where Sure-dart coolly uses poisoned darts to drive off a besieging dinosaur. Big-axe’s war party returns, rescues the boys, and the narrative shifts to the Rock-people’s cave life, weapons, and poisons, and their looming conflict with the stronger Fisher tribe. Forced to evacuate toward the hills, they are overtaken at the marsh; Big-axe leads a desperate stand on a narrow ridge, a giant turtle snatches a pursuer, and Sure-dart dashes to shield the fleeing women and children as brutal, close-quarters fighting claims lives, including the chief’s wife. The survivors break through, reach a small tree-island in the bog, and hastily fortify it, gathering for the next move.

Sure-dart, by F. H. Costello. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #78561.