It was not very long, however, before a singular bustle was heard on the first floor.  Maids ran scuttling up and down stairs, voices resounded through the open windows, and then came the sound of thumps, as of somebody vigorously battering at a door.  Austin turned round, and began walking towards the house.  He was met by old Martha, who seemed to be in a tremendous fluster about something.

“Master Austin!  Master Austin!  Oh, here you are.  What in the world is to be done?  Your aunt’s locked up in her bedroom, and nobody can find the key!”

“Is that all?” answered Austin calmly.  “Then she’ll have to stay there till it turns up, evidently.”

“But the mistress says she’s sure you know all about it,” panted Martha, in great distress, “and she’s in a most terrible taking.  Now, Master Austin, I do beseech you—­’tain’t no laughing matter, for the omnibus starts in a few minutes, and your aunt——­”

A terrific banging was now heard from the locked-up room, accompanied by shouts and cries from the imprisoned lady.  Austin advanced to the foot of the staircase, looking rather white, and listened.

“Austin!  Austin!  Where are you?  What have you done with the key?” shrieked Aunt Charlotte, in a tempest of despair and rage.  “Let me out, I say, let me out at once!  It’s you who have done this, I know it is.  Open the door, or I shall lose the train!” A fresh bombardment from the lady’s fists here followed.  “Where is Austin, Martha?  Can’t you find him anywhere?”

“He’s here, ma’am,” cried back Martha, in quavering tones, “but he don’t seem as if——­”

“Call Lubin with a ladder!” interrupted the desperate lady.  “I must catch the omnibus, if I break all my bones in getting out of the window.  Where’s Lubin?  Isn’t there a ladder tall enough?  Austin!  Austin!  Where is Austin, and why doesn’t he open the door?”

“He was here not a moment ago,” replied Martha, tremulously, “but where he’s got to now, or where he’s put the key, the Lord only knows.  Perhaps he’s gone to see about a ladder.  Lubin! have you seen Master Austin anywhere?”

But Austin, unobserved in the confusion, having stealthily glanced at his watch, had slipped out at the garden gate, and now stood looking down the road.  The omnibus had just started, and for about thirty seconds he remained watching it as it lumbered and clattered along in a cloud of dust until it was lost to view.  Then he went back to the house, and handed the key to Martha.  “There’s the key,” he said.  “Tell Aunt Charlotte I’m going for a walk, and I’ll let her know all about it when I come back to lunch.”