"Allemachtag!" exclaimed the Afrikander. "I hope you will enjoy the place better than I did. But, then, Fritz with a rifle is no longer there. What are you going to Kilembonga for—ivory? There are plenty of elephants, and lions, too."
"No, mining," replied Colin, "or, rather, mining engineering."
Van der Wyck looked at his youthful cabin-companion with a quizzical air.
"You would do better in the Witwatersrand," he observed, and without offering any explanation, he busied himself with the contents of his trunk.
For the next three days Colin kept to his bunk. His high hopes of becoming a good sailor were rudely dashed, not exactly to the ground, but somewhere else of a less solid nature. In nautical parlance, he was "mustering his bag," or, in plain language, he was horribly seasick.
All the way down Channel and across the Bay the Huldebras was followed by a strong nor'-easterly wind, that made the ship roll far worse than if she had encountered a head wind.
Colin had some slight satisfaction in the knowledge that he was not the only passenger out of action with mal-de-mer. The steward, who brought and took away twelve untasted meals, informed him that only half-a-dozen of the second-class were up and about.
On the morning of the fourth day Colin dressed and went on deck. He still felt far from well, but he was able to eat breakfast. There was no sign of Tiny Desmond, and it was not until late that afternoon that that very woe-begone-looking youth staggered out of his cabin.
But before the Huldebras sighted Las Palmas Colin had recovered his normal spirits, while Desmond looked better than he had done for weeks past. The rest of the passengers, too, were finding their sea-legs, and taking an interest in deck games.
In spite of the difference of ages, the two chums got on splendidly with Van der Wyck. Apart from the fact that he knew the district to which they were bound, he was a "thundering good sort." He retained the quiet, unassuming manner of a veldt farmer, combined with the experience gained by travelling in other portions of the Empire to which he was proud to belong.