A MANOR HOUSE IN DEER LAND. 223 



They simply let it be known that they do 

 not intend to be taken ; they have guns 

 and will use them, and if the keepers attack 

 them it is at the risk of their lives. The 

 question arises whether a too severe punish- 

 ment for game-theft may not be respon- 

 sible for this, and whether it does not defeat 

 its object, since, if a poacher is aware that 

 a heavy term of imprisonment awaits him, 

 he will rather fire than be captured. At 

 all events, such is the condition of things 

 in some districts, and the keepers, for this 

 reason, rarely interfere with such a gang. 

 Such severe terms of imprisonment are cruel 

 to keepers, whose lives are thereby im- 

 perilled. 



The path has now led up by the oak 

 woods to a great height, and the setting 

 sun gleams over the hills of Red Deer 

 Land. It is a land full of old memories. 

 It is strange that Sir Francis Drake, like 



