Then, with a dry smile, "If you call occupying a hall bedroom and eating at a third-rate boarding-house table living.

However, it's my own fault.

I've been a newspaper man since I left college.

But I threw up my job six months ago.

Since then I've been free-lancing." "Have, hey ?" The captain was too polite to ask further questions, but he had not the slightest idea what "free-lancing" might be.