Free Rugby Rebel by Gerard Siggins Page A

soldiers guarding a bread lorry taking supplies to the barracks.
    ‘It was a routine operation, we thought – I planned to be back in UCD to do an exam a few hours later – but something went wrong and a shot was fired. That led to more firing but my gun jammed twice. I dived for cover under the bread lorry but my comrades all escaped and I was dragged out and captured.’
    Eoin scribbled away as Kevin paused his excavations.
    ‘Well, they had a trial of sorts for me, but sure I knew I was done for from the minute they captured me. Three of their soldiers lay dead and I knew they’d be wanting revenge for that. I felt sorry for them … They were all around my age. But I believed they should never have been in my country and so I had no option but to see them as my enemy.’
    Kevin wiped his brow and stared off into the distance.
    ‘They said they’d let me off if I gave up my comrades, but a man who gives up his fellows isn’t much of a manin my way of thinking. So six weeks later they took me out of my cell one Monday morning, and then, well … you know the rest,’ he sighed.
    Eoin stopped digging and flicked a bead of sweat from his face. ‘Thanks, Kevin, I know that must have been hard to bring that up from so long ago.’
    They silently returned to their work, but after a short time Eoin looked at his watch.
    ‘I just have five minutes more Kevin. Then I’ll have to call it a night. It’s nearly dark anyway, I can hardly see what I’m …’
    Eoin stopped digging. His fingernails had hit something hard and he shook his hand to relieve the pain. He bent closer, and started to brush the clay away from where he had hit. He reached in again, and caught hold of a piece of metal. He pulled, and it came up with his hand.

Chapter 23
    . . . . . . . . .
    ‘ W HAT have you got there, lad?’ asked Kevin.
    ‘It’s a big key, I think,’ replied Eoin. ‘It’s covered in muck.’
    Eoin rubbed at the key to clean it, showing it to his ghostly companion.
    ‘That’s it,’ said Kevin. ‘That’s what I was looking for. It’s come to me now. I wonder what it’s for?’
    ‘I bet I know,’ came a third voice from behind the bushes.
    Brian stepped through the greenery, his eyes bright with excitement. ‘I’ll  warrant it’s for the door in the secret room in the school!’
    ‘Do you know, I think you could be right,’ said Kevin. ‘I kept getting flashes telling me where to look and how to dig. And there was a big, dusty door in the visions too. But …’
    ‘But what?’ asked Eoin.
    ‘But … I don’t think this is going to open that door. I think there’s something else going on. I just got a flashof the front door of my old school too …’
    ‘Why don’t you hurry back to the dormitory, Eoin,’ said Brian. ‘You and Alan can check out whether the key fits or not, and Kevin and I will work out what to do next. I’ll call by before school tomorrow.’
    Eoin took the key and scarpered back to the main buildings as quickly as he could. It was quite dark now and that part of the grounds wasn’t lit. ‘Sure what are you afraid of,’ he laughed to himself. ‘You’ve just spent the last hour with two ghosts!’
    He nipped into the bathroom on the first floor to wash his filthy hands and to remove the rest of the clay from the key. It was dulled by the years it must have spent underground, but a few seconds scrubbing brought a shine to the handle and Eoin reckoned it was a very important key back in its day. It might even still be.
    Slipping the key back inside his hoody, Eoin strolled out to the corridor where he bumped into Richie Duffy and two of his hangers-on, Sugrue and Flanagan.
    ‘You’re looking a bit scruffy, even for a bog-man,’ Duffy sneered. ‘Were you out digging potatoes on the farm?’
    Eoin grimaced, not wanting to rise to the bait. He grunted and went to squeeze pass Flanagan.
    ‘Hold up a second there, Madden,’ started Duffy as hissidekicks blocked Eoin in. ‘I hear