“Yes. Circumstances made it necessary for you to move from Amethyst Island until such time as I was at liberty to carry out that promise. You demurred about leaving, while I feared disastrous intervention during my enforced absence in the east; that is why you were brought here in haste without your consent—that and my inherent weakness for the dramatic.”
“Oh—at last a candid confession! Then let us get down to earth as quickly as possible. I am weary of playing Alice in Wonderland awaiting the production of your fabled monster. Mr. Smith, let me reciprocate in your candour. I have observed sufficient since I came to the Nannabijou Limits to convince me that there is only one head to the North Star Company, one man who rules and dictates here—and that man is yourself.”
“True, but I do so under a trusteeship for J.C.X.”
“You seem at least to have convinced yourself of his existence.”
“You think it all a fraud—a hoax?”
“I’m afraid so. Others you may have succeeded in deluding as to the existence of this imaginary creature behind whose personality you carry on your affairs, but I will not believe until I see. Furthermore, I don’t believe you can produce him.”
“Then you shall see J.C.X.—to-night!”
IV
He took her arm and led her across the room to a point near the entrance to the hall. There he gently swung her so that she faced the wall and he stood directly behind her.
“Look,” he indicated. “There you may see the J.C.X. for whom till to-night I have anonymously guided the affairs of the North Star.”