First greetings over, and the usual anxious questions answered, Tom thought of the Westons, and informed his father of their presence on board the barque; at the same time he briefly related the circumstances that led to their being there. The lad had set his heart upon having his new friends at Rustenburg, at any rate for the present; and he was not doomed to disappointment. Major Flinders at once hastened to meet his former school-fellow, and right cordially did he welcome him.
“I don’t forget,” said he, “that it was Maurice Weston who risked his life to save mine, when we were youngsters together at Jamaica! But for you, Maurice, I should certainly have become the food for ‘Port Royal Tom.’ Now, remember, no roof but mine shelters you and yours even for a single night!—not a word, my dear old friend, not a word! If you had a score of children, my wife and I would welcome them for their father’s sake. Please, say no more. Tom, my boy, get your traps together as sharp as you can, and then we’ll go ashore.”
Three hours later, Mr Weston, Grace, and George were seated in a four-horse Cape cart, with Tom and the Major, spinning along the Wynberg road at a good fourteen miles an hour, en route for Rustenburg Farm.
Chapter Six.
Tom Flinders’ Home—“A friend in need Is a friend indeed!”—An Expedition proposed.
Five miles from Cape Town, on the Wynberg and Simon’s Town road, lies the picturesque, wood-girt village of Rondebosch. The ground in rear of this village is beautifully timbered, and rises with a more or less gradual ascent, towards a mountain range extending from Table Bay to Muissenburg; an old fort and military station about two-and-a-half leagues from Simon’s Town; and upon one of the rocky spurs of this range, overlooking Rondebosch, there used to stand an ancient Dutch block-house, from the summit of which a splendid view of the surrounding country, and “veldt,” stretching far away to the foot of the Stellenbosch Hills, could be obtained, on a fair, clear day.
Between the “Block-house Hill”—as it was then called—and the village of Rondebosch lay Major Flinders’ property, the “Rustenburg House Farm,” consisting of some 300 morgens (about 600 acres) of carefully cultivated land and vineyards, with a substantial dwelling-house and farm buildings; the whole being screened from the highroad by plantations of well-grown trees. The Major also held 60 morgens of coarse grazing-land, with a cottage and stables, two miles away on the “veldt” to the north-east of Rondebosch.
So you see the Major’s commission-money had been well invested; the more so, because—thanks to good management and untiring industry—the farm had greatly increased in value since he took possession of it.