Even a friend's enlistment and emotional breakdown does not intrude upon the peace Gene finds with Finny, until one evening when Brinker and some of the other boys drag Gene and Finny to the Assembly Room, where they propose to get to the truth about Finny's injury. In a mock trial, Brinker questions Finny, searching for proof of Gene's responsibility in his fall. When another boy's memory of the fall opens Finny's eyes to his friend's guilt, he lurches angrily from the room, falling on the stairs and breaking his leg again.
At a distance, Gene follows Finny to the infirmary, hoping to talk with him alone. Finny, however, will not talk with Gene until the next day, when he asks sadly if his friend really meant to hurt him or if it were simply an unconscious impulse. Gene insists that he acted without hatred — blindly — and Finny accepts the explanation with relief. Later that day, in an operation to set the leg again, Finny dies when some marrow from the broken bone enters the bloodstream and stops his heart. Gene accepts the news without crying, because he feels as if he has died, too.
Later, after the war, Gene looks back and understands that he fought his real war at Devon. Gene's true enemy was the narrow, spiteful self that harbored jealousy, and that self died with Finny.
