Shaken by what he has learned about Leper, Gene returns to Devon, wanting to see Finny again. He finds him in the middle of a chaotic snowball fight, in which all the boys end up playfully attacking Finny. Gene worries that Finny may injure his leg again with such rough play, but Finny insists that he is careful and adds—to Gene’s relief—that he can feel the bone growing stronger.
When Brinker visits the boys’ room to ask about Leper, Gene answers that Leper is “Absent Without Leave.” Finny assumes that Leper has grown tired of the army, but Brinker sees the truth at once, declaring that now two students from the class are out of the war, the second being the injured Finny. Gene resists this idea, resorting to Finny’s notion that there is no war, but when Finny agrees with only a fading grin, Gene knows that he is being ironic.
One morning after chapel, Brinker tells Gene that his failure to enlist comes from pity for Finny. He also says that Gene should put the accident in the past by seeing all the details come to light. Brinker hints darkly that Gene knows what he means.
Working on a translation of Caesar’s Gallic Wars, Gene and Finny discuss the current war. Finny admits that Leper’s mental breakdown has convinced him of the reality of the war, and he tells Gene that he has even seen Leper at Devon. The boys decide not to tell anyone about Leper’s presence.
Later, Brinker and other boys come to take Gene and Finny by force to the Assembly Room in the First Building. There Brinker formally opens an inquiry into the circumstances of Finny’s accident to end any “stray rumors and suspicions.” When Brinker questions him, Finny first recalls Gene at the bottom of the tree but then remembers that they climbed the tree together. This contradicts Gene’s own false statement, and only Leper, who also witnessed the accident, can resolve the difference.
Leper appears and makes it clear in his own strange and mystical version of the event that Gene jounced the limb just before Finny fell. When Brinker insists they must investigate further, Finny shouts him down and rushes out of the room in tears. The boys hear Finny’s cane tapping and then the sound of him falling down the marble stairs.
