Chap­ter 24 of The Choco­late War delves deep­er into the mount­ing ten­sion between Archie and Broth­er Leon as the lat­ter urgent­ly calls Archie to address the fail­ing choco­late sale. With the sale already more than halfway through, Broth­er Leon is increas­ing­ly fran­tic, as he real­izes that half of the choco­lates remain unsold, despite their aggres­sive push for sales. This trou­bling devel­op­ment push­es Leon into a state of pan­ic, as he rec­og­nizes the finan­cial con­se­quences of the fundraiser’s fail­ure. Although Archie ini­tial­ly responds with a sense of defen­sive­ness, ques­tion­ing the true extent of the prob­lem, he lis­tens as Leon inten­si­fies the con­ver­sa­tion, mak­ing it clear that this cri­sis is sig­nif­i­cant. Leon accus­es Archie of fail­ing to be effec­tive in moti­vat­ing the stu­dents to sell, though, as always, Archie main­tains a calm com­po­sure, almost rel­ish­ing the pres­sure as he acknowl­edges Leon’s relent­less demeanor. This exchange reveals a deep­er con­flict, not just over the fail­ing fundrais­er but also over the pow­er dynam­ics between the two, with Archie’s abil­i­ty to main­tain con­trol of the sit­u­a­tion and his own ego at stake.

Ear­li­er in the day, Archie had received infor­ma­tion from Bri­an Cochran, Leon’s book­keep­er, which served as a pre­cur­sor to the grow­ing finan­cial issues that Leon was fac­ing. Bri­an over­heard a heat­ed con­ver­sa­tion between Leon and Broth­er Jacques, dur­ing which Jacques crit­i­cized Leon for mis­man­ag­ing the school’s finances and tak­ing unnec­es­sary finan­cial risks. Specif­i­cal­ly, Leon had used ques­tion­able funds to pay for twen­ty thou­sand box­es of choco­lates, which now seemed to be part of the unfold­ing dis­as­ter. This infor­ma­tion rais­es red flags about Leon’s abil­i­ty to han­dle not only the choco­late sale but also the broad­er finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty of the school. The men­tion of such finan­cial mis­man­age­ment intro­duces a new lay­er to the stakes of the sit­u­a­tion, reveal­ing that the fail­ure of the choco­late sale might not just be a minor set­back but a much more seri­ous issue that could have last­ing reper­cus­sions. For Archie, who is already grap­pling with the fall­out of the sale, this finan­cial prob­lem inten­si­fies his con­cern, though he tries to keep his focus on find­ing a way to make the sale suc­ceed.

As the con­ver­sa­tion with Broth­er Leon pro­gress­es, Leon increas­ing­ly directs the blame towards Archie for the fail­ure to secure the stu­dents’ par­tic­i­pa­tion, espe­cial­ly Jer­ry Renault’s defi­ance in not sell­ing choco­lates. Leon insists that Archie’s fail­ure to han­dle Renault prop­er­ly has con­tributed to the sit­u­a­tion, thus cre­at­ing a divi­sion between them. Archie, how­ev­er, remains unfazed and attempts to shift the focus, point­ing out that the real prob­lem lies with the exhaus­tion and dis­sat­is­fac­tion of the stu­dents. He sug­gests that the recur­ring choco­late sales have worn the stu­dents down and made them less will­ing to com­ply with the demands. How­ev­er, Leon is far from con­vinced, grow­ing more frus­trat­ed and demand­ing that Archie act quick­ly to resolve the sit­u­a­tion, espe­cial­ly with Renault, whose defi­ance has become sym­bol­ic of a larg­er rebel­lion. The pres­sure on Archie grows as he tries to nav­i­gate the ten­sions, attempt­ing to main­tain con­trol over the sit­u­a­tion while keep­ing his own stand­ing intact. The stakes esca­late when Leon makes it clear that if the sale con­tin­ues to fail, not only will Archie face the con­se­quences, but the entire Vig­ils group could also suf­fer. This state­ment under­scores the high stakes and sets the stage for the mount­ing ten­sion that will unfold in the com­ing chap­ters. As Leon ends the call abrupt­ly, Archie is left to con­tem­plate his next steps, know­ing that his abil­i­ty to main­tain con­trol over the Vig­ils, the school, and the choco­late sale will be test­ed in ways he had not antic­i­pat­ed. This chap­ter empha­sizes the com­plex web of pow­er, influ­ence, and manip­u­la­tion that Archie nav­i­gates, set­ting the tone for the con­flict that will unfold as he tries to steer the sit­u­a­tion back in his favor.