listed in the ski troops because he saw a film and it looked quite exciting. Gene thought that their first contribution to the war would leave in style, proud and bold, but Leper, he just left. The next few weeks are all in preparation for a secret winter carnival, organized by Finny which included a ski jump (about 3 foot high), music, games with prizes and some very hard cider. Near the end Gene has received a telegram from Leper stating that he "had escaped." Finny had no Idea what he had escaped from. Gene went to the place specified on the card: Leper's home. When there Gene found that Leper had gone crazy. He was "nervous in the service" and had developed quite a psychotic personality. Gene and Leper start out talking friendly but Leper suddenly lashes out at Gene calling him "high and mighty, savage," and "lord of the manner," this lead to Leper accusing Gene that he had caused Finny's accident which made Gene kick Leper out of his chair. Gene had gotten very defensive over this. In a few days later in the evening, Brinker, who has changed quite a bit since earlier in the book, came into Gene and Finny's room with some of his friends and took the two to the auditorium in the first building. There were several other boys waiting and made the two sit down, Brinker rambled on a bit and then started to question Gene and Finny on where Gene was when Finny was about to jump off the limb, at first Gene and Finny agreed that Gene was on the ground, going up the tree as Finny fell but Finny remembers that they were going to jump together, and Gene was on the limb with him. Due to this unclarity, the boys go to get Leper, who was also there, and he remembers that both Gene and Finny were on the limb and that he say someone bounce up and down, but he would not reveal who fell that day. Finny has finally collected all this information and stormed off in a rage out the door and down the steps to their room but he didn't make it down the steps...
