The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-02-26

winchester w sHOOU, d. VOlley from
four or five rifles was fired at us, but
the range was too long and we sui
fered no injury. I returned the fire.
and although there was no prear-
ranged plan Of action, both Harbert
and myself wheeled our horses and
started toward the Indians.
They broke from their shelter and
scattered, all endeavoring, however,
to pass beyond the ridge of the hill on
the side OF which they had made their
ambush. followed several up the
hill in the direction from which we
came, firing eight or ten shots and
having the satisfaction of seeing the
murderous fiends fall to the ground.
AS had not heard a shot from Har-
bert, | turned around to see whatha
become OF him, and thus witnessed
one OF the most extraordinary and
inexplicable occurrences in my life,
Harbert was pursuing. in a diagonal
direction from me, three Indians who
were endeavoring to cross the ridge
at a lower point than those whom l
attacked, but, while within close
range, did not attmpt to shoot.
Just at this moment, a buck, who
was nearest to him, pulled u p his
weapon, but the pistol in the lett
hand Of my companion cracked, and
the Indian fell over dead. Icould see
that Harbert's horse had q free rein
and that it understood the work in
hand as well s.s it's master, for in an
other moment it was alongside the
Indian. No shot was fired this time.
Harbert clutched tho Apache by the
neck with his right hand and threw
him from the pony he was riding.
scarcely pausing in his mad chase
after the third savage. Thinking
that the Indian who had been pulled
from his horse was simply stunned, I
rode rapidly toward him, but was
surprised upon reaching the body to
see by the distorted features and pro-
truding tongue, that life was extinct.
BY this time, Harbert had come up
to the last wretch; again his right
arm went out and his hand clutched
the throat of the Indian, who rolled
from his horse as though his skull had
been cloven. Again turning into the
road and shouting to me to follow,
Harhert started in the direction we
had been previously travelling at a
speed which my pony could not
begin to maintain.
The entire fight, if fight it may be
called, did not last over five or six
minutes. Although not unfamiliar
with such things, I was completely
bewildered. How did Harbert kill
the two last Indians? He surely did
not strangle them to death, for he
did not take sufficient time, and he
certainly did not possess the strength
to dislocate a mans neck while using
but one hand. Why did not he
shoot them, like an ordinary man
would have done? Was he wizard,
and what unseen powers did he pos
sess? While trying to settle these
and other questions of similar ma
ture which rapidly came to my mind,
| overlook my companion, who lay
writhing on the ground in apparent
agony, while his horse Was Quietly
grazing on the grass near by.
Believing that he had been wound
ed, l sprang to his side to render
what assistance I could, when he
turned his face toward me and fairly
Kissed:
"For Gods sake, man, don't touch
me; it'll kill you!'
His jaws set, his eyes rolled, and his
features gave evidence of the most in
tense pain; great beads of perspira-
ton stood out on his brow. His
limbs were twitching and his agony
as Harbert did for the next five or
six minutes, and when the throes be-
came less violent, he sat up and be-
gan rubbing and beating his right
arm, repeating, over and over again
in a moan, ooh it'll kill me; TIL bust;
it'll break; some time I'll cut it Off
cut it off, 1t was fully half an hour
before the suffering man was able to
mount his horse and ride to the STA
ton, butin the meantime, he assured
me that he had not been wounded by
the Indians.
We reached Prescott the next even
ing without any further encoun-
tiers with the Indians, and dur
ing the day Harbert explained to me
reluctantly-for he was averse of
talking on the subject-the nature of
his peculiar gift or ailment. 1t seems
that he had possessed it since child
hood, and he was inclined to at
tribute it to the the painful circum-
stances attaching to his birth. TWAS
never developed until he came into
the Indian COUNTRY, when he found
that by the sensation in his right
hand he was able to detect the pres
ence, at considerable distances, ofhis
inherent foe, and that of other peo-
pie if they were to the right OF Him.
When unduly excited or angry, his
,"electric hand" as Harbert himself
called it. became an instrument of
certain death, instantaneously killing
any one upon whom it was laid. Att
er such occasions he invariably SUI
fered the agony I had witnessed the
day before.
After Harbert left me at Prescott,
on his trip to Santa Fee, I learned
that he had been a guide and scoutin
New Mexico for General Candy dur