The trouble was that Max had no idea what the Ideas Book looked like. It was a book, of course – he knew that much – but there was a large number of books on the shelves, and it could have been any of them. So he realised that he would have to work quickly, opening each book to see if any of them looked as if it was a book of plans.

The first ten books he looked at seemed to be business books, full of figures but not much else. Then there were several books of maps, a couple of ancient dictionaries and even some books with stained covers, full of kitchen recipes. Max looked up at the shelves and sighed. It would take all his time – and all his energy – to work his way along the shelves, but he had to try.

He was rewarded after fifteen minutes, when he reached for an old book with a red cover. Something told him that this was a special book the moment he laid his hands on it, and when he opened the cover and looked at the first page, he knew that he had found what he was looking for. There, in the centre of the page, in large black letters, was his grandfather’s name: AUGUSTUS MONTY CHAMPION. And underneath, in smaller letters, were the words: Ideas and Plans for Better Cars. Finally, at the bottom of the page, came the warning: Strictly Private.

Max would have loved to have paged through the Ideas Book, but caution told him that he should not linger in this room of other people’s stuff. So, tucking the newly discovered treasure under his arm, he began to make his way towards the door. And it was at this point that he heard voices in the corridor outside.

Max looked about him for places to hide. There was a cupboard on the other side of the room and that, it seemed to him, was the only possible place to conceal himself. The problem though was that he did not know whether there was room for him in this cupboard – it could already be full of other people’s stuff – just like the shelves. If that were the case, all would be lost.

To his great relief, the cupboard was largely empty. Climbing inside it, still clutching the book, he pulled the door closed behind him. Now he was in the pitch dark, with only a small crack in the wood to let any light into his cramped and dusty hiding place. Yet in spite of the dark, he felt much safer now; nobody would find him there – unless, of course, somebody chose to look for something in the cupboard … There was no point in thinking about that possibility though, as there would not be much he could do if that happened. And perhaps the voices he had heard would just go away; perhaps they were the voices of people who were going somewhere else, rather than coming into the Other People’s Stuff room.

Unfortunately, they were coming in. Max heard the door of the room open, and then he heard footsteps and voices, much louder now than they had been before.

“It’s somewhere on one of these shelves,” said one of the voices. “I think it’s up there.”

That was a deep voice, and it came from Mr Grabber. It was answered very shortly afterwards by a boy’s voice, which Max recognised as the voice of Pablo Grabber. He recognised it because it was the same voice that had boasted about winning the races at the town sports.

“You’ve got lots of great stuff here, Dad,” said Pablo.

“You’re right, son,” came the reply. And then, after a certain amount of shuffling: “I don’t know where it can have got to. It was definitely somewhere here.”

“What does it look like?” asked Pablo.

“It’s red,” said Mr Grabber. “And it has the name of the stupid old man who wrote it on the front page. I hope we find it, son. It’s just the thing we need for the competition.”

Max was puzzled, but then he remembered something that Grandfather Gus had said about a contest being run to find a better car design. So that must be it: Mr Grabber was planning to steal one of his grandfather’s ideas to win the prize. And then he thought, “The stupid old man” … ? Max bristled in anger at those words. Mr Grabber was talking about Grandfather Gus, who was definitely not a stupid old man. How dare these thieves talk about his grandfather like that!

It was at this point, just as Max was struggling to control his feelings of anger at what he had overheard, that he felt a tickle in his nose. It was not a serious tickle to begin with, but slowly it became stronger. It was the dust, of course: if you hide yourself away in a dusty cupboard that has not been opened for months, if not years, then dust is bound to get into your nose, and if dust gets into your nose, you are bound to feel a tickle. And if you feel a tickle in your nose and you cannot do anything about it, then the odds are that you will sneeze.

Max struggled. He took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself, but that only seemed to make it worse. So, next, he breathed out as slowly as he could, but that had the effect of increasing the tickliness even more. And then, in a gush of relief, he let out the loudest and most cupboard-shaking sneeze of his life. Or that’s how it seemed to him – and how it seemed to the wicked Mr Grabber and his unpleasant son, Pablo.

For a few moments, both Grabbers stood quite still. Then Mr Grabber said to his son, “Did you hear that cupboard sneeze?”

Pablo Grabber shook his head in wonderment. “I did, Dad, but … but cupboards can’t sneeze, can they?”

“They certainly can’t,” said Mr Grabber. “But people in cupboards can sneeze, you know.”

Inside the cupboard, Max was frozen in dread. Through the little crack in the wood he could now see the two Grabbers advancing slowly towards his hiding place. In terror, he watched as they stopped right in front of the cupboard door. Mr Grabber was scowling, and Pablo Grabber had a cruel grin on his face. They were playing with him; they were deliberately prolonging his fear.

Then Max acted. He did not think it through too much, but he used the one weapon he had in his armoury – surprise. Throwing the cupboard doors open, he pushed them as hard as he could. Swinging on their hinges, the doors burst open with great force, knocking Pablo Grabber quite off his feet. Down he went on the floor, just as he had made Max fall down on the race track. And as he went down, Mr Grabber, completely taken by surprise, took a step backwards.

This gave Max the chance he needed, and without a moment’s delay, he ran across the room to the door that led to the corridor. Pushing this open as quickly as he could, he dashed out and down the corridor, not daring to look behind him, Grandfather Gus’s book clutched to his chest as he ran. He heard cries from somewhere behind him, but he paid no attention to them. All that he was thinking of was the need to get as far away as possible from his two Grabber pursuers. He did not care how he did this – all that counted was distance between him and those chasing after him.

There was another door at the end of the corridor, and Max was relieved to discover that this was unlocked. Slipping through it, he found himself at the foot of a wide staircase. He now launched himself up it, taking three, sometimes four, steps at a time. It was a dangerous way to climb a staircase, but Max did not care. It would be far more dangerous to be caught by the pursuing Grabbers.

There was a landing at the top of the stairs, and off this landing there were several open doors. Max saw that these were doors that led to bedrooms, and with a sinking feeling he realised he had run right up into the living quarters of the Grabber family. This was like running into the very nest of an angry swarm of wasps, or the private cave of a grumpy and cantankerous bear. But there was nowhere else for him to go, and so he ran into the first of these bedrooms, not knowing what to expect, and with no idea of how this would help him evade his would-be captors.

The bedroom belonged to Pablo Grabber. On a dresser near the window, there was a small forest of silver trophies – every one of them, Max thought, the result of a successful bit of cheating. On the walls there were posters of racing cars sponsored by Pablo’s father, with TEAM GRABBER painted in large red letters on their sides.

Max looked about him. He wondered whether he might climb out of the window and make his way down by way of a drainpipe. When he looked though, the drop seemed far too long, and he quickly decided that this would be far too perilous. In desperation, he saw that the only possible hiding place was under the bed. It was a tight fit, but he managed it, and did so just in time.

He heard Pablo and his father on the landing.

“He must have gone down the fire escape,” said Mr Grabber. “I’m going to go down and have a look.”

“He’ll have run away by now,” said Pablo.

“I’ll just check nonetheless,” said his father.

“I’ll stay up here,” said Pablo. “I need to get ready for the party.”

Max listened to Mr Grabber’s footsteps on the stairs. Then he heard Pablo come into the room; more than that, he was able to see his shoes and ankles as the other boy walked across to the bed. And there Pablo sat down, almost squashing the breath out of Max in his hiding place below.