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aside.
    ‘My phone!’ he gasped.
    Eoin stood up and walked across to Alan’s bed. ‘Is it missing too?’
    Alan nodded.
    ‘OK, let’s have a good look around for it, it has to be here somewhere,’ Eoin suggested.
    They took all the sheets and blankets off the bed. Eoin crawled under it and searched around underneath. Alan took everything out of his locker and cleaned out his wardrobe and all the suitcases he had brought.
    Nothing.
    Eoin stood up, brushing the dust and chips of varnish off his hands.
    ‘This is terrible,’ he said. ‘I don’t think Dylan took anything but he’s right that people will think that he did. I hope the phones turn up soon.’
    ‘I can’t stick around here,’ said Alan. ‘Let’s go for a ramble.’
    The pair headed off for a stroll around the grounds, and eventually ended up at the Rock, Eoin’s favourite place in the whole school, which lay beside the bubbling stream.
    ‘Oh, I forgot to tell you,’ he started. ‘I was here a couple of weeks ago and could swear someone was shooting at me.’
    ‘Whaaaaaaat?’ said Alan, stunned.
    ‘Yeah, I know it sounds mad, but when I went off the first night I came down here for a while. I heard two bangs that I’d swear were gunshots – I think they came from the school.’
    ‘Are you serious?’ said Alan. ‘That’s no joke – you should have told McCaffrey.’
    ‘I know. I know. But it seemed so stupid. And there was no harm done.’
    ‘And what happens if they decide to shoot now – and they hit me? Then there’s plenty of harm done. You need to report it.’
    ‘OK,’ muttered Eoin. ‘I’ll call in to him later.’
    ‘Any word from Brian or Dave this year?’ asked Alan. ‘I’d love to see them as often as you can.’
    Alan had discovered he too was able to see the ghosts that visited Eoin, but they had so far only appeared to him once.
    ‘I don’t know, it’s a weird thing,’ Eoin replied. ‘Sometimes it seems I can call them up and other times they just appear when I really need them, but you just can’t tell. There’s something about this place here though. You can feel it’s a bit spooky at times, especially in the evenings when the light is starting to go. I wonder was there anything on the site here long ago?’
    ‘An ancient burial ground?’ joked Alan. ‘Maybe you could ask Mr Finn? He’s writing a history of the school, isn’t he?’
    ‘Good idea, I’ll have to be careful what I ask though.’
    The boys turned to head back to their dorm, kicking a soft-drink can to each other as they dribbled across the field. Eoin suddenly felt a strange urge to turn around, and he stopped and looked back in the direction from which they had come. He saw a young man, dressed in a black and white rugby jersey, just standing at the entrance to the woods.
    Eoin called out, ‘Hey, are you lost?’ but the man just turned and wandered back into the trees.
    ‘I saw him! I saw him too!’ said Alan. ‘Is it a new ghost?’
    ‘You’re obsessed with seeing ghosts!’ said Eoin, ‘but I’ve no plans to head back down there after him. I wonder what’s for tea?’

Chapter 10
    . . . . . . . . .
    H ISTORY was the second class the next morning, and Alan gave Eoin an elbow in the ribs when Mr Finn came through the doorway.
    ‘I’m afraid your history teacher, Mr Dunne, is sick today, so I’ll be taking the class. What have you been studying recently?’ he asked.
    ‘The Easter Rising, sir,’ replied Hugh Bowers.
    ‘Ah, of course,’ said Mr Finn. ‘Sure weren’t we all in Kilmainham last week. Does anyone remember the names of the leaders of the Rising?’
    A couple of hands went up and the class got under-way. Mr Finn was an  inspirational teacher and soon had almost all the boys enraptured with stories from times gone by. He talked about the various flashpoints in the long search for Irish independence.
    ‘Does anyone remember the name of the young man who was hanged in Mountjoy Jail – he was the one who