British 81 mm mortar

The British 81 mm mortar is Bangley’s hidden reserve for the attack on Hig, a weapon whose sudden use changes a desperate defense into an overwhelming counterstrike. Its significance lies not only in its destructive force but in the way it reveals the depth of Bangley’s preparations: the mortar has been concealed near the tower, ready for a crisis Hig did not know was coming.

Concealed Reserve

Bangley has kept the mortar hidden in the brush by the tower. Hig discovers this only after the attack, when Bangley explains that he fetched it after seeing nine raiders advancing slowly on him. He had judged that Hig might need more powerful help than the rifle alone could provide. The weapon is thus not an openly displayed part of the defense but a reserve that becomes visible at the moment ordinary plans seem insufficient.

Its concealment belongs to a broader pattern of preparation around the tower. Hig remembers arguing with Bangley about its height: Hig had wanted to stop at twenty feet, while Bangley insisted on thirty. Bangley also recalls the double-joisted, reinforced porch he had built. From that elevated position, he can see the attackers when they move, including when they crouch or go to ground. The porch and the hidden mortar are distinct parts of the defense: the tower provides sight and a firing position, while the mortar is fetched from the brush when the threat escalates. Bangley presents the porch as something built for precisely this kind of emergency, though Hig has not understood the extent of the preparations until now.

Use in the Attack

As the raiders close in, Bangley directs Hig to stay in position and watch the ground to the west, using needle rock as a twelve-o’clock reference. He tells Hig to keep shooting if the attackers charge and explains that if they spread out to flank him, Bangley can call their direction and distance. The defense depends on coordination: Hig holds the exposed position, while Bangley watches from the tower and stands ready to respond.

The mortar enters the fight when Bangley sees the nine coming slowly toward Hig. He goes down and retrieves the tube from its brush hiding place, then uses it against the attackers. Afterward, he identifies the weapon as a British 81 mm mortar and says he had needed to use it sometime. The sudden arrival of this heavy weapon overturns Hig’s understanding of the fight and of Bangley’s preparations: the danger is still immediate, but the defenders possess a capability Hig had not known was there.

Bangley later says that Hig might have survived through his shooting alone, praising how well he had handled the rifle. That assessment leaves the mortar’s role carefully defined: it is decisive assistance in a dangerous encounter, but Bangley does not claim that Hig was helpless without it. His account also indicates that ammunition remains in reserve for a future crisis, so the mortar is not simply a weapon expended in one scene; it remains part of the defenders’ continuing capacity to resist.

Aftermath and Significance

The fight leaves three craters in the brush and bodies where the men fell. Hig’s rifle has been knocked beneath a salt bush fifteen feet away. Sitting in the dirt, with the blood from his nose drying, he tries to absorb the revelation that Bangley had kept a mortar hidden near the tower all along. Relief and shock break through together: Hig laughs and cries at once, unable to say how long the reaction lasts. The weapon’s arrival has helped preserve his life, but its force also makes the violence of the encounter impossible to treat as routine.

Bangley’s casual framing of the mortar as a surprise contrasts with the consequences of its use. He describes having kept it ready and still having more for when matters become worse; Hig’s response is to grasp, belatedly, how much lethal power has been folded into their defensive arrangements. The mortar therefore embodies both the practical logic of Bangley’s preparations and their cost. It is an unseen contingency until the moment it reshapes the fight, leaving craters and bodies in the landscape.

That aftermath does not end Hig’s duties. Later that afternoon, still shaken and not in condition to fly, he takes the plane out to search for the other four raiders and determine whether they threaten the families or the defenders. He finds no sign of them; they have headed for the hills. The mortar’s intervention has helped him survive the immediate attack, but it cannot settle what danger remains. Its place in the story is consequently both concrete and provisional: it saves Hig from being left to face the attackers with his rifle alone, while the remaining ammunition points toward the possibility of another emergency rather than the end of violence.