ears, was employed at Chesney's Brewery; it was
at his own request he was sent to Trent Park and installed as second
keeper and then raised to head keeper in the course of a few years. He
was a strange man, lonely, taciturn, passionately fond of his daughter,
and spent the bulk of his time in the forest, where he studied
wood-craft and the habits of all wild birds and animals. There was
something almost uncanny in the way he made friends with the wild
things of the woods and forests; no living bird or animal seemed to
fear him, and he taught Jane much wild lore and how to make friends
with the denizens of the woods.

The preserving of game was strictly carried out at Trent Park and
thousands of birds were killed every season; in this Tom Thrush was
most successful, a prince among keepers.

The Park abounded with massive oaks, and no doubt at one time had been
part of Sherwood Forest, and these were ancient trees that had been
spared when others fell. Centuries old some of them, with vast trunks
and huge gnarled, twisted branches which seemed to have suffered from
terrible convulsions of nature, been put on the wrack, as it were, and
come forth mutilated in a hundred deformities.

There were deer in the Park, and white cattle, almost wild, sometimes
dangerous, they were confined in a strong ring fence.

One part of the Park was laid out in paddocks for the blood stock, and
here the young thoroughbreds from the Trent Stud galloped about and
played their games until it was time for them to be broken in and sent
to the trainer.

Well-kept roads ran in various directions through the Park, there was
plenty of water, a minor river running through on its way to join the
Trent. It was indeed a glorious place and Alan Chesney might well be
counted a lucky man to own it.

His two friends had gone, after staying a week, and it was arranged
they should meet at Epsom for the Derby.

It was seldom Alan Chesney was alone in the big house; many times he
wished it smaller, not so roomy, more cosy, in keeping with his
bachelor habits. There were parts of it he had only been in once or
twice. The long picture gallery he shunned, although some exquisite
modern paintings hung there.

When he came into possession he had some of the smaller and brighter
pictures removed into the living rooms and the spaces were still left
vacant. The windows in this gallery overlooked the Park, in the
distance the keep could be seen, and farth