- Now that all of the old residents of the town are dead (except for Miss Volker and Mr. Spizz), Jack has nothing to do (no obituaries to write anymore).
- A gunshot jerks Jack from his reverie. Gee—for a town where nothing ever seems to happen, there is certainly a lot going on this summer.
- Jack runs outside the house, and hears his mother yelling. He immediately goes on the defensive: "I didn't fire the rifle!" (27.10).
- A bloody, dying deer crashes into their yard from the woods, closely trailed by a threatening man wearing a ski mask.
- Jack's mother sends him to get the Japanese rifle to scare off the poacher, but Jack finds that it is gone. He instead grabs the sword.
- In a brave move, Jack's mom swings the sword at the masked hunter and tries to get him to leave. He instead demands the deer; it's his "kill."
- The masked poacher turns out to be Uncle Will (remember him?), and he has the missing Japanese sniper rifle.
- Jack comforts the dying deer and realizes that at least one mystery is solved: Uncle Will was the one who loaded the gun.
- Jack, however, is still grounded (because of the corn). (And because he really shouldn't have been playing around with the gun in the first time.)
- Interestingly enough, Jack's nose does not bleed through all of this stress, and he's also not afraid of the dead deer.
- Hm, it's almost like Jack is growing up.