Rugby Rebel by Gerard Siggins

didn’t touch it either. There must be some otherexplanation.’
    ‘Well, would you be willing to be fingerprinted – just to remove you from our enquiries?’ asked the garda.
    ‘Of course,’ said Mr Finn, and watched as one of the men in the white overalls produced a fingerprint kit. He and Eoin gave their samples and, just as they were about to leave, another call came from the basement.
    ‘Inspector, we’ve got the trunk open,’ said the garda who poked his head out through the trapdoor. ‘It’s an interesting haul.’
    ‘Would you like to see this, Mr Finn?’ invited the inspector, who then led the way down the staircase.
    The technicians had lifted the chest out of the side room and opened it just at the bottom of the stairs, so Eoin could see down inside it. Even in the gloom he could see that it was packed full of silver cups and trophies.

Chapter 30
    . . . . . . . . .
    T HE word spread like wildfire about the opening of the hidden chamber and the treasures that had been found there. Eoin’s central role in the drama made him the focus of everyone’s attention and he could barely walk two metres anywhere in the school without someone pointing to him or asking him a question. Even the teachers wanted to know about the discovery.
    Eoin buried himself in his history project, which was just about complete, and in his rugby, which was a great way to escape.
    There was less than a week to the Junior Cup final in the Aviva Stadium. Mr Carey was keen to forge a firmer understanding between Eoin and the scrum half Paddy Buckley, so there were even a couple of pre-school sessions with just the two of them and the coach.
    ‘The Belvo wing-forwards are very fast on their feet,’ explained the coach to Paddy. ‘So you need to be even faster getting the ball out to Eoin.’
    The two boys worked on signals, and the best pace and direction for Eoin to receive the ball.
    As the three rambled back towards school, the school nurse, Miss O’Dea, was parking her car. She waved and called out to Mr Carey. ‘I just want to warn you, Mr Carey, that I have had a serious outbreak of the vomiting bug among the third-year boys. There are three down at the moment, but I would like you to keep an eye out for symptoms among your players. Many of them will have some protection from illness but any that haven’t could be in trouble.’
    Mr Carey went white. ‘Thank you, Miss O’Dea. That’s very worrying indeed. Boys, back to school now, I’ll see you at training in the afternoon.’
    There was a full attendance at the training session, where Mr Carey asked all the boys how they were feeling. He also pressed on them that it was important to tell Miss O’Dea if they felt at all poorly.
    Eoin returned to the dorm to meet Dylan and collect his bags for a brief visit to Ormondstown. The boys were old hands at travelling on the bus now and relaxed as it sped through the midland towns on the way to their home.
    ‘Did you hear about the bug thing?’ Eoin asked his pal. ‘Carey’s terrified that it will hit the team. I think he was glad to hear I was getting out of town for the weekend!’
    ‘Do you think ye might need a winger?’ asked Dylan. ‘Especially one with try-scoring experience at the Aviva. You know what they say about horses for courses?’
    Eoin laughed. ‘It’s going to be hard enough without having you out there on the wing. Anything planned for the weekend?’
    ‘Caoimhe wants to go to the movies tomorrow night. Would you be up for that?’
    ‘Ah, sure why not. I haven’t seen a movie in ages,’ Eoin replied.
    The boys parted at the bus-stop, where Eoin’s dad was waiting in the car. Dylan lived just a short walk away. ‘See you tomorrow Eoin. Call for me about six?’
    On the way home Eoin filled in his dad on as much of the drama about the secret room as he could without spilling the beans on the ghosts.
    ‘My, oh my, that sounds very exciting. And the gun had been fired? I hope you weren’t in any