Godfrey Morgan

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Godfrey Morgan, by Jules Verne

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Title: Godfrey Morgan A Californian Mystery
Author: Jules Verne
Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23489]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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GODFREY MORGAN
A CALIFORNIAN MYSTERY
BY
JULES VERNE
ILLUSTRATED
AUTHOR'S COPYRIGHT EDITION
LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Limited.
[Illustration: "Going! Going!" page 15]

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE In which the reader has the opportunity of buying an Island in the Pacific Ocean 1
CHAPTER II.
How William W. Kolderup, of San Francisco, was at loggerheads with J. R. Taskinar, of Stockton 11
CHAPTER III.
The conversation of Phina Hollaney and Godfrey Morgan, with a piano accompaniment 24
CHAPTER IV.
In which T. Artelett, otherwise Tartlet, is duly introduced to the reader 35
CHAPTER V.
In which they prepare to go, and at the end of which they go for good 43
CHAPTER VI.
In which the reader makes the acquaintance of a new personage 53
CHAPTER VII.
In which it will be seen that William W. Kolderup was probably right in insuring his ship 62
CHAPTER VIII.
Which leads Godfrey to bitter reflections on the mania for travelling 77
CHAPTER IX.
In which it is shown that Crusoes do not have everything as they wish 91
CHAPTER X.
In which Godfrey does what any other shipwrecked man would have done under the circumstances 104
CHAPTER XI.
In which the question of lodging is solved as well as it could be 117
CHAPTER XII.
Which ends with a thunder-bolt 129
CHAPTER XIII.
In which Godfrey again sees a slight smoke over another part of the Island 143
CHAPTER XIV.
Wherein Godfrey finds some wreckage, to which he and his companion give a hearty welcome 155
CHAPTER XV.
In which there happens what happens at least once in the life of every Crusoe, real or imaginary 167
CHAPTER XVI.
In which something happens which cannot fail to surprise the reader 179
CHAPTER XVII.
In which Professor Tartlet's gun really does marvels 190
CHAPTER XVIII.
Which treats of the moral and physical education of a simple native of the Pacific 203
CHAPTER XIX.
In which the situation already gravely compromised becomes more and more complicated 216
CHAPTER XX.
In which Tartlet reiterates in every key that he would rather be off 228
CHAPTER XXI.
Which ends with quite a surprising reflection by the negro Carefinotu 242
CHAPTER XXII.
Which concludes by explaining what up to now had appeared inexplicable 260

GODFREY MORGAN.
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH THE READER HAS THE OPPORTUNITY OF BUYING AN ISLAND IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
"An island to sell, for cash, to the highest bidder!" said Dean Felporg, the auctioneer, standing behind his rostrum in the room where the conditions of the singular sale were being noisily discussed.
"Island for sale! island for sale!" repeated in shrill tones again and again Gingrass, the crier, who was threading his way in and out of the excited crowd closely packed inside the largest saloon in the auction mart at No. 10, Sacramento Street.
The crowd consisted not only of a goodly number of Americans from the States of Utah, Oregon, and California, but also of a few Frenchmen, who form quite a sixth of the population.
Mexicans were there enveloped in their sarapes; Chinamen in their large-sleeved tunics, pointed shoes, and conical hats; one or two Kanucks from the coast; and even a sprinkling of Black Feet, Grosventres, or Flatheads, from the banks of the Trinity river.
The scene is in San Francisco, the capital of California, but not at the period when the placer-mining fever was raging--from 1849 to 1852. San Francisco was no longer what it had been then, a caravanserai, a terminus, an inn, where for a night there slept the busy men who were hastening to the gold-fields west of the Sierra Nevada. At the end of some twenty years the old unknown Yerba-Buena had given place to a town unique of its kind, peopled by 100,000 inhabitants, built under the shelter of a couple of hills, away from the shore, but stretching off to the farthest heights in the background--a city in short which has dethroned Lima, Santiago, Valparaiso, and every other rival, and which the Americans have made the queen of the Pacific, the "glory of the western coast!"
It was the 15th of May, and the weather was still cold. In California, subject as it is to the direct action of the polar currents, the first weeks of this month are somewhat similar to the last weeks of March in Central Europe. But the cold was hardly noticeable in the thick of the auction crowd. The bell with its incessant clangour had brought together