Chapter I: Preface

In this story I have taken a few liberties with what are generally accepted in the scientific world as facts, and so I suppose some explanations are desirable. The greatest liberty I have taken is with regard to the introduction of human beings into the story when the period is so very remote. The period is that called by geologists the Secondary, and the particular part of it is toward the close of what is termed the Cretaceous. As far as our knowledge goes at the present time, this is a date several hundred thousand years earlier than the coming of man. But I desired to introduce human beings to make the story more interesting, and I felt a greater right to do so because there was nothing in the condition of the earth at that time which would have made it impossible for human beings to live and flourish. In fact, the conditions were more favorable than in some of the inhabited parts of the earth now.

Another bit of license is that relating to the animals and birds. I have introduced a few rather earlier than some authorities would allow, and have detained others on the stage, so to speak, a little longer than perhaps there is scientific authority for. But I believe that this matter is of slight importance, and the more so because specialists are by no means agreed as to the dates, and because all our absolute knowledge is comparatively limited.

Beyond this, I think the story follows the lines of accepted fact and conclusions. Thus Colorado, with its great fresh-water sea; with its strange forests of mingled palms, oaks, beeches, yew-like conifers, and cycads (which were like palms crossed with gigantic ferns) with its hot, steamy days, and its tropic nights, when a moon bigger and brighter than we have ever seen looked down on a world that would have made us gasp by its strangeness--these are brought on our stage faithfully and without exaggeration.

And neither are those seeming nightmares, the monsters of the story, exaggerated. I have spoken “by the card” when I have asked to step out before us the lizard as big as a small house, and that could have pulled a man out of the upper branches of a moderately tall tree; that other lizard creature bigger than any elephant, but that looked somewhat like a hideous caricature of a rhinoceros; and yet again, the creature nearly as big as the last, that had a part of its brain substance in its rump, and a spiked tail that could have switched once and dashed a man into a bloody pulp.

Then there are faithful pictures of the smaller creatures--the toothed birds, the bat-like lizards which stretched nearly twenty feet across the spread wings, and the turtles as big over as an old-fashioned tavern table.

But I am raising too much of the curtain. I will make one more explanation and then let it fall. In giving names to the monsters and other wild creatures, I have invented in behalf of the human characters such as are simple and would naturally be suggested by the looks or ways of the creatures themselves. It would hardly do to proceed on the line of reasoning of the old lady who said that she did not marvel so much that the remains of ancient creatures had been discovered as that science had found out also their names. However, to be more informing, I have inserted a list of the modern names of the principal creatures.

FREDERICK H. COSTELLO.

BANGOR, MAINE, _July 1, 1909_.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HUNTING TERRIBLE GAME 15

II. MORE THAN ONE KIND OF SURPRISE 28

III. THE FLIGHT TO THE HILLS 39

IV. HARD PRESSED 50

V. THE STAND OF DESPERATE MEN 57

VI. THE END OF THE FIGHT 70

VII. BETWEEN TWO FIRES 84

VIII. PLUCK AND GOOD LUCK 95

IX. THE GREAT DOUBLE DUEL, AND THINGS LATER 106

X. THE TRAPPER TRAPPED 119

XI. BAD NEWS AND SERIOUS ANTICIPATIONS 131

XII. THE HUNTERS’ STORY 144

XIII. A DUBIOUS PROSPECT 157

XIV. THE FIGHT AT THE BARRICADE 168

XV. THE SECOND ASSAULT 178

XVI. SOME SHREWD AND PLUCKY WORK 195

XVII. NATURE COMES INTO THE FIGHT 202

XVIII. NATURE RELENTS AND QUITS THE FIELD 215

XIX. TO BE MADE INTO FRESH MEAT 227

XX. THE LAST CHANCE 239

XXI. SURE-DART’S LUCKY MISS 247

XXII. PEACE BY CONQUEST 259

XXIII. THE TEST OF THE “DART-SENDER” 275

XXIV. THE CRISIS 289

XXV. SURE-DART FINDS NEW ENEMIES 298

XXVI. PEACE ON LAND AND LAKE 311

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Sure-dart witnesses the battle of the sea monsters _Frontispiece_

“Three-horns’ great weight, in spite of the spread of
his feet, and of his vast strength, told tremendously
against him” 90

“‘Hold him!’ shouted Hop-foot, skipping to Sure-dart’s
side” 134

“It was now that Big-axe did that which sent his name
down the years in the legends of his people” 174

“Sure-dart crept out of his nest, taking his spear with
him” 210

MODERN NAMES OF CREATURES OF THE STORY

DEATH-BEAST Ceteosaurus, or “monster lizard.” One
American variety is also called tyrannosaurus
rex, or “tyrant king lizard.” It is
likewise known as “terrible lizard.” It
was a large, flesh-eating dinosaur.

THUNDER-BEAST Atlantosaurus, or “gigantic lizard.” A
dinosaur of the brontosaurus or “thunder
lizard” family, and the largest land animal
known.

GREAT STALKER An American species of the iguanodon,
called thespesius or “marvellous.” It is
also called claosaurus. It was a vegetable
eating dinosaur.

LITTLE STALKER A smaller variety of the thespesius family.

MARSH-HOPPER The smallest known dinosaur. It was a
thespesius on a diminutive scale.

THREE-HORNS Triceratops. A dinosaur somewhat like
a rhinoceros. It was not carnivorous.

THORN-TAIL Stegosaurus, or “backlered lizard.” One
of the strangest-looking of the dinosaurs.

FISH-SNAKE Plesiosaurus or elasmosaurus. A marine
monster with a long, snake-like neck.

GREAT KILLER Mosasaur, or “Meuse River lizard,” a
kind of lizard-crocodile.

GREAT FLIPPER Archæochelon, or “primitive turtle.” An
enormous turtle.

SPEAR-TOOTH A moderately large, very voracious fish,
with a huge head and teeth like sharp
spikes.

WORM-TAIL Archæopteryx, or “primitive bird.” A
strange bird of the Jurassic period, but
possibly surviving to the Cretaceous, the
period of the story.

TERROR BIRD Brontornis, or “thunder bird.”

BIG BEAST-BIRD Pterodactyl, the “finger-winged.” A kind
of flying lizard, with enormous wings.

SCAMPERER Hyracotherium. The ancestor of the
horse. He does not properly belong to
the period of the story, but to a time later.

_Sure-Dart_