A Strange Story.
Mr. Johnson conducted me into an inner room, closed and locked the door and bade me be seated.
“My name,” he began, “is not John Johnson. I am living under an assumed name for reasons of a political nature. I am a Russian by birth, and a Nihilist by thought and training. I deplore the condition of my unhappy country. I have done my part and am still willing to do it, to help bring about her freedom from the terrible despotism under which she suffers. I am acquainted with the horrors of Siberian prison-mines. I was sentenced to Siberia for life, for complicity in a Nihilistic plot. My brother was sent there soon afterward. Together we planned escape. I succeeded. He fell. Shot down by an officer of his Despotic Majesty. I managed to reach England, where I found many friends. In London I became acquainted with the late Mr. L——. He was also a Nihilist, and a victim of Alexander’s wrath. He, too, was an exile from his country. For either of us to return meant instant capture at the hands of the Czar’s well-trained police—or worse than that, Siberia. I lived in London five years. There I learned the trade of a dentist. Upon my banishment to Siberia, my property had been confiscated to the government.
“At the end of five years I came to the United States, where I have lived ever since. Mr. L—— came here soon after I did. He was a rich man. Just previous to his arrest, he had managed to convert most of his property into money which he deposited in a London bank. This had been used to effect his escape from Siberia. He had relativesin this country with whom he lived up to the time of his death. Soon after coming to this country, he imparted to me a secret which had been in his keeping for thirty years, it having been transmitted to him by his father. He was then a man of sixty. One day, ten years ago, he came into my office—this very room—and said he wished to speak with me upon a most important matter, one concerning our beloved country.
“‘Do you see this tooth,’ he inquired, pointing to a large, gold-capped molar in his lower jaw.
“‘Yes,’ I replied.
“‘That tooth,’ he continued, after having made sure that we were alone, ‘that tooth holds, has held for thirty years, a secret of the utmost importance to you and me, and to all liberty loving Russians. I tell you this because I know you will guard the secret as you would your life. In the cavity of that tooth, under the gold cap (here he lowered his voice) is a piece of parchment which contains the plans of a secret underground entrance to the Czar’s palace at St. Petersburg, an entrance which, as you will readily understand, will prove of the utmost importance to our friends when the time is ripe to use it. This plan has been in the possession of our family for hundreds of years, having been drawn originally by an ancestor of mine, one of the designers of the palace. I am the last male member of my family, and now bequeath this secret to you. Upon my death, I desire that you extract the tooth, and preserve or dispose of the plan in whatever way seems best to you. You know its importance. I can rely upon your judgment. The dentist who inserted it in my tooth, thirty years ago in Russia, is now dead. You and I alone now hold the secret. Do you accept the trust?’
“‘I do,’ I answered.
“That was Mr. L——’s story.
“When he died I happened to be out of the city. On my return I hastened to obtain possession of the tooth in the manner that seemed best to me. I was not aware that the matter was mentioned in Mr. L——’s will, which it would appear he had intended to make public before his death, but was unable to do so. The plan which I found in the cavity of the tooth is now in safe hands in Russia, and the world may yet learn whether the well-guarded secret is destined to be utilized.
“I tell you this because I know you are an American, a lover of liberty, and will not divulge the secret I have told you.”
Mr. Johnson died many years ago, and now I give this story to the world, confident that even its perusal by the Russian officials cannot in any way endanger the secret of the gold-capped tooth.