A Son of the Sea by John Arthur Barry — Read

EASTMORE was a cosmopolitan in the widest sense of the word, and his talents were as varied as the characters he had played. By turns sailor, miner, journalist, bushman and explorer, his was a most curious and attractive, if somewhat unsatisfying personality. About forty years of age, he was tall and well-built, with pleasant features, albeit the cheek-bones were rather too prominent, and the eyes in colour of that dull, lustreless black that is apt to lend a lifeless expression to a face. Still, with his frank smile, assured carriage, small peaked beard and moustache, just showing signs of grey, he would have been anywhere considered a good-looking man. Of his past he never spoke. That he was an Englishman was pretty certain; that he was an insatiable rover was quite so. Indeed he seemed at home in most parts of the world, and knew and could talk about people in them after that minute fashion which is the surest test of all of a man's having been, and seen, and done. Here in Sydney, for instance, Torre quickly discovered that part, at least, of his threat to the captain of the Andromeda was no vain one, for with pressmen of all degrees he appeared to be hail fellow well met.

"I tried journalism myself here once," he remarked to Torre; "but things were dull, and I found it impossible to get constant employment on any newspaper. You see——Oh, how d'ye do, Tomlinson," interrupting himself to return the salutation of a clever-faced, brown-bearded, spectacled man who passed. "That's the editor of the Nomad" he continued, "a weekly paper whose pink cover you may see anywhere between Nyngan and the Nile. It consists mainly of paragraphs cleverly seasoned—often with pepper—and at times served up hot, and hot on the edge of a libel action. Tomlinson's the man I should have asked to help me with M'Cutcheon, if necessary. The Nomad's done yeoman's service before now by exposing abuses and slaying shams—and has suffered for it."