The period many years before the great war a time of innocence, oppulence, and the pursuit of pleasure at least for the wealthy aristocracy.

But even the most pompous prestiges personages could be humbled.

All was hustle and bustle at Mayhem manor a huge stately polatial pile set in umpteen acres of plush farming and woodland countryside in the heart of England. The fifth duke who had inherited the estate and a vast fortune looked on as the house heaved with cleaning and polishing, trades men delivering, and cooks preparing food enough to feed an army.

All this activity heralded the immenent arrival of a hundred of the richest most influential guests in the land invited for a week of shooting and fishing.

Such emminent guests brought with them their own selected servants particulary their own game keepers whose knowledge would be invaluable as large wagers would be made as to who would be the most successful in the weeks fishing and shooting activitys. On this occasion there was an air of speculation as a visitor from the colonies numbered amongst the guests an American self made man whose fortune had been aquired by astute dealings in the mining industry his long time friend and acting keeper accompanied him.

On arrival guests were shown to their rooms keepers to their more humble accomodation a series of huts in the woods each one housing ten occupants. The dukes head keeper was a runt of a man with a sower face and and an evil temper and having some foreign jumped up stranger from somewhere he had never heard of and didn?t really want to made him determined to make this ruddy strangers life hell. The weekend started with a days fishing fifty boats were assembled on the enormous lake the duke and his head man were always the first to push off that coupled with fact his keeper had been born and bred on the lake meant they always hit the best fishing spots first and returned gloating over their winning catch.

Towards midweek the the head keepers bullying and derogatory remarks towards the stranger his target of derision were beyond a joke, the strange desperate to escape his jibes decided to go for a walk alone during his wanderings deep in the woods he came across the chassis with its four wheels of an old perambulator this gave him an idea. By weighting the chassis down with stones pushing sharpened sticks through the frame and attaching a stout rope to one end he had himself a useable plough. That night he relayed his plan to his master who was now just as heartily sick of the duke?s pompous and patronising attitude.

So the plan was instigated, by plying the head keeper with brandy his master had borrowed from the dukes cellar to ensure he slept soundly, the stranger could head off to some chosen spots hurl the chassis out into the water and drag it back with the rope so disturbing the bed of the lake bringing food out into the open so attracting shoals of fish to feed. He did this for a few nights until the final day of the fishing outings when his master proposed a huge wager with the duke as to who would have the largest catch, the duke who thought the foreigner to be befuddled any way gleefully excepted the ridiculous wager.

Eager to claim his prize the duke and his head man pushed off first as usual but was surprised to see the American laughing and sharing a tot of whisky with his man, but then he thought these ruddy colonials are all barking mad anyway. The day was bright and calm ideal for fishing and the spots that had been dragged yielded excellent even better than anticipated bags, perch, tench, roach, bream, and a huge carp that weighed in just over twenty pounds it certainly was a day to remember. Back at the boat house the duke arrived first gloating with his net of fish he would show this jumped up American how it?s done.

However his mood soon changed when he saw the catch of his opponent his jaw dropped, his head man made a quick exit, all he could do was look happy and settle the wager but inside he was fuming.

Later that evening the head keeper was summoned to the house and summarily dismissed from his service, the duke did not appear for dinner on that last evening feigning illness but really he was sulking his sulk lasted for a fortnight and he made everyone?s life round him hell.

His American guest and his acting keeper left the next morning a good deal richer making their way to London to enjoy the pleasures of the capital before returning home, leaving the duke a good deal wiser.

The dismissed head keeper never did figure out why some joker would nail a perambulator chassis with sharpened sticks through the frame and a rope tied to one end to the back of his cart !! He mused over the matter as he trundled down the road seeking fresh employment.

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