The time never hung heavily on Oscar's hands after that. The days were spent on deck in social converse, and the evenings in the cabin, listening to lectures and singing, or in witnessing amateur theatricals.
The colonel looked on in surprise, but made no effort to renew his acquaintance with Oscar. He was afraid the latter might offer to accompany him on his hunting expedition.
At last, much to the regret of Oscar, who wished that the voyage might be indefinitely prolonged, Table Mountain came into view. As there was no table-cloth on it, the vessel moved into the harbor, and in a few hours was safely moored to the wharf.
CHAPTER IX. OSCAR MAKES A NEW ACQUAINTANCE.
As Oscar's freight was all booked for Cape Town, it was necessary that it should go through the custom-house before it could be reshipped on the Ivanhoe, the little coasting steamer that was to convey the young hunter and his outfit to Port Natal.
In superintending this transfer Oscar was kept busy, for he was on deck from the time his goods were taken out of the steamer's hold until the Ivanhoe's hatches were closed over them.
Then he secured his bunk on board the coasting vessel, and, being free from care and anxiety, was at liberty to accept some of the numerous invitations he had received from those of the steamer's passengers who called Cape Town their home.
He dined with one, ate an eleven o'clock supper with another, and at three in the morning was sleeping soundly in his bunk, while the Ivanhoe was skimming over a dark and threatening sea, with a lowering sky above her, and a strong southerly gale howling through her rigging. But the day dawned bright and clear, and at an early hour Oscar was on deck.