Surely
Drusenin was in luck! The best otter-hunting grounds in the world! A
harbor as smooth as glass, mountain-girt, sheltered as a hole in a
wall, right in the centre of the hunting-grounds, yet shut off from the
rioting north winds that shook the rickety vessels to pieces! And best
of all, along the sandy shore between the ship and the mountains that
receded inland tier on tier into the clouds--the dome-roofed,
underground dwellings of two or three thousand native hunters ready to
risk the surf of the otter hunt at Drusenin's beck! Just to make sure
of safety after Pushkareff's losses of ten men on this island, Drusenin
exchanges a letter or two with the commanders of those other three
Russian vessels. Then he laid his plans for the winter's hunt. But so
did the Aleut Indians; and their plans were for a man-hunt of every
Russian within the limits of Oonalaska.
A curious story is told of how the Aleuts arranged to have the uprising
simultaneous and certain. A bunch of sticks was carried to the chief
of every tribe. {90} These were burned one a day, like the skin wick
in the seal oil of the Aleut's stone lamp.
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