Produced by Robert Shimmin, Rudy Ketterer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. [Illustration: "He was dressed in the most magnificent robes of India." --Page 234.] _All-Over-the-World Library--Third Series_ ACROSS INDIA OR LIVE BOYS IN THE FAR EAST BY OLIVER OPTIC AUTHOR OF "A MISSING MILLION" "A MILLIONAIRE AT SIXTEEN" "A YOUNG KNIGHT-ERRANT" "STRANGE SIGHTS ABROAD" "AMERICAN BOYS AFLOAT" "THE YOUNG NAVIGATORS" "UP AND DOWN THE NILE" "ASIATIC BREEZES" AND UPWARDS OF ONE HUNDRED OTHER VOLUMES BOSTON LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET 1895 * * * * * TO MY LONG-TRIED FRIEND OF MORE THAN FORTY YEARS, WITH WHOM IN ALL THAT TIME, I HAVE NOT HAD A BICKER OR A SHADOW OF UNPLEASANTNESS THOUGH HE HAS BEEN MY SENIOR PUBLISHER FOR MORE THAN AN ENTIRE GENERATION, AND TO WHOM I HAVE NOT DEDICATED A BOOK FOR THIRTY YEARS WILLIAM LEE This Volume IS RESPECTFULLY AND CORDIALLY INSCRIBED BY HIS FAITHFUL AND EVER GRATEFUL FRIEND WILLIAM T. ADAMS * * * * * 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 ship, in which the distinguished Pacha, as a reformed and entirely reconstructed person, sails in company with the voyagers.