He looked out the window but he was far too high to jump. He went out into the corridor and looked for another way out that avoided the creaky front stairs.

At the end of the corridor was a sign that said “Fire Exit”. “Perfect”, thought the Old Codger, “a fire escape”. He went to the door and pressed the lever that unlocked it. At that point all hell let loose. A deafening screech in his ear went “whoop, whoop, whoop”. He had not read the sign on the door that said, “Warning: this door is alarmed”.

In his fright he pushed the door open and ran as fast as his old legs would carry him down the stairs, afraid that a policeman would jump out and arrest him. He ran out of the yard, at the back of the house onto the street and headed for the sea. As he rounded the corner he was startled again by a loud alarm, “eee orr, eee orr, eee orr”, and a big red fire engine went whizzing past him.

The Old Codger was naturally curious to see where the fire engine was going, and when it stopped a few doors down the street he walked over to have a look. It was only when the landlady came out of the front door that he realised it was his house. “Oh Mr. Curmudgeon”, said the landlady seeing him, “someone let off the fire alarm”.

The Old Codger had a nimble brain when it came to getting out of trouble. “It was those pesky Taylor kids”, he said, “I saw them fiddling with the fire door outside my room”.

The Old Codger escaped as soon as he could because he did not want to risk meeting Tammy and Tommy’s parents in case they caused a scene. He hurried down to the beach and mingled with the crowds who were all happy because the sun was out.

The Old Codger sat down on an empty bit of beach and looked in his bag of belongings. He found the broken pair of sunglasses but they only stayed on his head if he lay down with them resting on his face; so that is what he did.