Hig Ambushes Nine Raiders in the Valley

Hig Ambushes Nine Raiders in the Valley is a pivotal test of the defensive partnership between Hig and Bangley: Hig must confront a pursuing group at close range, while Bangley guides him by radio and finally intervenes with a weapon he has kept concealed. The encounter begins as Hig moves meat toward the tower and ends with the attackers scattered, Hig alive, and the two men still acting as a team. Its balance of preparation, improvisation, and concealed backup makes the valley itself into a trap—and then reverses who is in danger.

Warning and Preparation

The ambush interrupts an ordinary but exposed task. Hig is hauling two quartered does in a sled toward the tower, having begun his walk in daylight rather than setting out before dawn. He is more than halfway across the open ground when the radio strapped to his chest comes alive. Bangley’s warning is immediate: Hig has company, and the people behind him are stalking him from roughly a quarter mile away. The trail behind appears empty to Hig, so the threat initially exists for him as information supplied by the lookout rather than as something he can see.

Bangley counts nine pursuers and reports that they have no guns. He reasons that if they had firearms, Hig would already have been killed. The attackers want his meat and weapon, making the load he is dragging both the reason for the pursuit and a possible means of protection. This distinction shapes the defense: Hig faces a dangerous group, but Bangley believes their lack of guns gives him an opportunity to prepare an ambush rather than simply run.

Bangley directs Hig toward a shallow draw about eighty yards ahead. At its bottom, dense sage bushes on the north side of the trail offer concealment. Hig is to appear fatigued, continue walking, and drag the sled behind the brush. Bangley specifically tells him to set up behind it, treating the meat and sled as cover in case the pursuers have a weapon he has not seen. The plan is cautious rather than dependent on certainty: even while reporting that the raiders are unarmed, Bangley prepares for the possibility that his assessment is wrong.

The Raiders Enter the Draw

As the pursuers approach, Bangley tracks them from the tower and gives Hig a running account. They slow to single file on the easy trail and do not realize that Hig is waiting below. Bangley tells him to let most of the group descend into the bottom of the draw before firing, then to engage them from left to right and front to back. The instructions convert the terrain and the raiders’ order of approach into an advantage for Hig.

Hig prepares the rifle on the deer hide and lays out thirteen cartridges so he can reload without changing their direction. He also takes out his Glock and keeps it within reach. His hands shake, but Bangley’s oddly encouraging instruction to have fun changes how Hig experiences the immediate danger: fear remains, yet he describes a familiar, almost buoyant readiness. He recalls the trust placed in him as a high-school soccer goalie, and the comparison clarifies his role in the draw: he is the last defense for the people and place behind him.

The first attacker comes over the edge cautiously, a thin, gray-bearded man carrying a sword. A large red-bearded man follows, also carrying a sword, and a third, long-haired man carries a baseball bat fitted with sharpened screws. The weapons and their movement confirm that this is a committed assault, not a harmless encounter. Hig waits until the men are down in the open and fires in sequence. The first two attackers fall; the third is struck as he begins to move toward cover. When two more come together at the edge, Hig fires again, bringing the number of attackers he has hit or brought down to four. The remaining members of the group are still approaching, so the first volley has not ended the danger.

Retreat and Mortar Fire

Bangley’s next radio command reverses the immediate task: Hig must move back toward him. He tells Hig to pocket the Glock, grab the rifle and the loose cartridges, and run. Hig follows the sequence, looking back to see five men charging over the lip of the draw, spread out and moving fast. The shift is abrupt. A moment earlier Hig had been holding position and firing; now survival depends on breaking away before the attackers reach him.

As Hig runs, a series of heavy blasts interrupts the pursuit. The force throws him down, and the experience leaves him disoriented, but he remains able to respond to Bangley’s calls. Once the blasts cease, Bangley reports that the raiders have scattered and that at least one is no longer intact; the rest have disappeared from his view. He tells Hig to locate his rifle once he can manage it and checks whether Hig still has the Glock, emphasizing that the area is not yet known to be clear. Hig gradually confirms to himself that he is able to move and communicate.

Only after the attack does Hig learn what Bangley fired: a British 81 mm mortar. Bangley had hidden it near the tower and used the porch Hig had built there as the position for the weapon. He explains that he retrieved the mortar from its concealment when the nine raiders began closing in, judging that Hig might need powerful help. The mortar was therefore not improvised at the moment of crisis; it was an undisclosed reserve built into the defenses, and Bangley chose to reveal it when Hig’s position became untenable.

Aftermath and Significance

Bangley does not present the mortar as proof that Hig’s own effort was useless. He tells Hig that he did well and might have managed without the blasts, praising the way he shot. That assessment preserves the distinction between Hig’s successful stand and Bangley’s decisive intervention: Hig has already stopped four attackers, but the five still charging make the mortar necessary as a way to break the assault and buy him a chance to escape.

Hig laughs and cries after the immediate danger has passed. He is not in condition to fly, but that afternoon he takes to the air to look for the other four raiders and determine whether they intend to threaten the families or the men’s own position. He finds no sign of them; they have headed for the hills. Later, he flies back over the site, where he sees three craters and the bodies left after the fighting. The damaged ground records the intervention from above, while the search confirms that the surviving attackers have withdrawn rather than continued toward the people Hig feared they might target.

The event shows how the partnership works under pressure without making either man’s contribution interchangeable. Bangley sees the threat from the tower, gives Hig precise instructions, and keeps a hidden weapon available for a contingency. Hig, despite fear and limited time, follows the plan, fires on the attackers, and retreats when ordered. The sequence also exposes a limit in their shared preparation: Hig did not know the mortar was part of the defense until it had been used. The surprise saves his life, but it reveals that Bangley has kept an important measure of the perimeter’s strength to himself.

The draw is both a carefully selected defensive position and a place where the balance of power changes twice. The concealed sled helps Hig wait for the raiders; his first shots slow their advance; their remaining charge forces him to flee; and Bangley’s concealed mortar then scatters them. The event therefore makes the defenses around the tower more than a fixed boundary. Their survival depends on coordination between the lookout and the person exposed beyond it, and on the ability to shift from a planned ambush to emergency rescue when the plan proves insufficient.