"Know where Joel lives, I should say so, there's not many people hereabouts do not know him."
"A celebrated trainer, is he?" asked Jack.
"You may well say that. He's won nearly all our big races at one time and another, and he's about as clever as any man can be with horses."
Jack thought his informant looked like an old jockey, and was about to ask him if his surmise was correct, when the man saved him the trouble by saying with a smile,—
"I see you have sized me up. I was a well known rider fifteen years ago, but I got too old fashioned, it's the young 'uns get all the luck in these days."
"I was going to ask you if you were a jockey," said Jack. "It does seem rather hard lines that a man who has given the best part of his life to his work should be discarded when he is old. I suppose you made sufficient to live on?"
The man shook his head as he replied,—
"There was not much chance, I got a fair amount of riding, but the fees did not amount to much, it is different here to the old country, where a jockey can earn thousands a year."
"I suppose so," said Jack.
"You are a new arrival here?"