Across India Part 1

Across India.

by Oliver Optic.

PREFACE

"Across India" is the first volume of the third series of the "All-Over-the-World Library," in which the voyage of the Guardian-Mother is continued from Aden, where some important changes were made in the current of events, including the disposal of the little steamer Maud, which figured to a considerable extent in the later volumes of the library, though they also comprehended the addition of another and larger consort to the s.h.i.+p, in which the distinguished Pacha, as a reformed and entirely reconstructed person, sails in company with the voyagers.

A few days out from the port of departure, a stirring event, a catastrophe of the sea, adds three very important personages to the cabin pa.s.sengers of the Guardian-Mother, and affords two of the "live boys" an opportunity to distinguish themselves in a work of humanity requiring courage and skill.

These additions to the company prove to be a very fortunate acquisition to the party; for they are entirely familiar with everything in and relating to India. They are t.i.tled individuals, two of the trio, who have not only travelled all over the peninsula, but have very influential relations with the officers of the government, and the native princes, rajahs, kings, maharajahs, and n.o.bles.

The commander, the professor, the surgeon, the young millionaire, and others who have hitherto given the "talks" and lectures for the instruction of the young people, and incidentally of the older ones also, find themselves almost entirely relieved from duty in this direction by those whom the s.h.i.+p's company have saved from inevitable death in the stormy billows of the Arabian Sea. The grat.i.tude of the two t.i.tled members of the trio, and their earnest appreciation of the educational object of the long voyage, induce them to make themselves very useful on board.

They do not confine themselves to the duty presented to them in "Conference Hall;" but they are profuse, and even extravagant, in their hospitality, becoming the hosts of the entire party, and treating them like princes in the princ.i.p.al cities of India, in all of which they are quite at home. One of the Hindu maharajahs proves to be an old friend of both of them, and the party reside a week at his court; and the time is given up to the study of manners and customs, as well as to hunting and the sports of the country.

Felix McGavonty, with Kilkenny blood in his veins, is firm in his belief that he ought not to be afraid of snakes, and does for India a little of what St. Patrick did completely for Ireland. The other "live boys," though not so much inclined as the Milesian to battle with the cobra-de-capello, have some experience in shooting tigers, leopards, deer, pythons, crocodiles, and other game, though not enough to wholly satisfy their natural enterprise.

The tour of the party is made by railroad in India, from Bombay, taking in Lah.o.r.e, Delhi, Agra, Cawnpoor, Lucknow, Benares, Calcutta, and by the Guardian-Mother to Madras and Ceylon. On the way and in the cities the t.i.tled conductors continue their "talks" and lectures about the places visited, with as much of history as time would permit, including an epitome of those great events in India, the Mutiny of the Sepoys, the "Black Hole,"

and other events of the past. The speakers were a.s.sisted by elaborate maps, which the reader can find in his atlas. Statistics are given to some extent for purposes of comparison. Brief notices of the lives of such men as Bishop Heber, Sir Colin Campbell, Henry Havelock, and others are introduced.

The party did not claim to have seen all there was of India; simply to have obtained "specimen bricks" of the princ.i.p.al cities, with a fair idea of the manners and customs of the people.

WILLIAM. T. ADAMS.

CHAPTER I

ABOUT FINDING THE LONGITUDE

"Well, Captain Scott, what is the run to-day?" asked Louis Belgrave, the owner of the steam-yacht Guardian-Mother, which had at this date made her way by a somewhat devious course half way round the world, and was in the act of making the other half.

The young magnate was eighteen years old, and was walking on the promenade deck of the steamer with a beautiful young lady of sixteen when he asked for information in regard to the run, or the distance made by the s.h.i.+p during the last sea-day.

"Before I answer your question, my dear Louis, I must protest against being any longer addressed as captain, for I am not now ent.i.tled to that honorable appellation," replied the young man addressed by the owner.

"Once a captain always a captain," replied Louis. "One who has been a member of Congress is still an 'Honorable,' though his term of office expired twenty or forty years ago. The worthy commander of the Guardian-Mother was always called Captain Ringgold in Von Blonk Park and New York, though he had not been in command of a s.h.i.+p for ten years,"

argued Louis.

"That's right; but the circ.u.mstances are a little different in my case. In the first place, I am only eighteen years old, and my brief command was a very small one, as the world goes. It hardly ent.i.tles me to be called captain after I have ceased to be in command. In charge of the little Maud I was the happiest young fellow on the Eastern Continent; but I am just as happy now, for this morning I was formally appointed third officer of the Guardian-Mother, at the wages paid to Captain Sharp when he had the same position."

"I congratulate you, Mr. Scott," said Louis, grasping the hand of the new officer, though he had been duly consulted in regard to the appointment the day before.

"Permit me to congratulate you also, Mr. Scott," added Miss Blanche, as she extended to him her delicate little hand.

"Thank you, Miss Woolridge," replied the new third officer, raising the uniform cap he had already donned, and bowing as gracefully as a dancing-master. "Thank you with all my heart, Louis. I won't deny that I was considerably broken up when the Maud was sold; but now I am glad of it, for it has given me a position that I like better."

"Now, Mr. Scott, what is the run for to-day?" asked Louis, renewing his first question.

"I don't know," replied the third officer with a mischievous smile.

"You don't know!" exclaimed Louis.

"I do not, Louis."

"I thought all the officers, including the commander, took the observation, and worked up the reckoning for the longitude. We got eight bells nearly an hour ago, and the bulletin must have been posted by this time."

"It was posted some time ago. All the officers work up the reckoning; and I did so with the others. The commander and I agreed to a second."

"What do you mean by saying you do not know the run?" demanded Louis.

"I do know the run; but that was not what you asked me," answered Scott with the same mischievous smile.

"What did I ask you?"

"The first time you asked me all right, and I should have answered you if I had not felt obliged to switch off and inform you and Miss Woolridge of my new appointment. The second time you put it you changed the question."

"I changed it?" queried Louis.

"You remember that when Mrs. Blossom asked Flix where under the sun he had been, he replied that he had not been anywhere, as it happened to be in the evening, when the sun was not overhead."

"A quibble!" exclaimed Louis, laughing.

"Granted; but one which was intended to test your information in regard to a nautical problem. You asked me the second time for the run of to-day for the last twenty-four hours."

"And that was what I asked you the first time," answered Louis.

"I beg your pardon, but you asked me simply for the run to-day."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"Will you please to tell me how many hours there are in a sea-day?" asked Scott, becoming more serious.

"That depends," answered Louis, laughing. "You have me on the run."

"You will find that the bulletin signed by the first officer gives the run as 330 miles; but the answer to your second question is 337 miles, about,"

added the third officer. "Just here the day is only twenty-three hours and forty minutes long as we are running; and the faster we go the shorter the day," continued the speaker, who was ciphering all the time on a card.

"I don't see how that can be," interposed Miss Blanche, with one of her prettiest smiles.

"There is the lunch-bell; but I shall be very happy to explain the matter more fully later in the day, Miss Woolridge, unless you prefer that Louis should do it," suggested Scott.

"I doubt if I could do it, and I should be glad to listen to the explanation," replied Louis, as they descended to the main cabin; for the new third officer was permitted to retain his place at the table as well as his state-room.

The commander had suggested that there was likely to be some change of cabin arrangements; for it was not in accordance with his ideas of right that the third officer should be admitted to the table, while the first and second were excluded; and Louis was very desirous that his friend Scott should remain in the cabin. The repasts on board the steamer were social occasions, and the party often sat quite an hour at the table, as at the present luncheon. But as soon as the company left their places, Louis and Miss Blanche followed the third officer to the promenade deck, to hear the desired explanation of sea-time.

"Of course you know how the longitude of the s.h.i.+p is obtained, Miss Woolridge?" the young officer began.