of mystery and incense.  Behind  a table covered 
with silver lace sat a lady  with  long  painted 
nails and crimson  lipstick, her  cheeks stained 
with rouge and eyes like crystal  balls,  fixing 
him in  their  penetrating  stare  from  beneath 
hooded eyelids.  His grandmother would not  have 
approved.
   'I can see that you're not shy at all,'  said 
the lady, waving him to a chair opposite her. He 
was pinned to her eyes. 'You're quite an intell-
igent young man, aren't you?'
    He nodded.
    'And  a little crafty  too. Yes, I would say 
there's quite a lot of craft in you. You are one 
for schemes, young man.  Great schemes and great 
dreams. Let me see your hand.'  He  held  it out 
and she stroked the  palm  with  her  long, long 
nails.  It tickled.
    'Your head line is  strong,'   she  intoned, 
pointing to a line  that  ran  parallel  to  the 
first line and swerved off at a  crazy  tangent.
'That is your heart line.  You  are a man with a 
great heart, but wayward.  You are a hunter, one 
for the chase, and you must  beware  of  letting 
your imagination run away  with  you.  You  will 
discover many means but  you  will  forget  that 
there are also many  ends.  Be warned of letting 
too  few  ends  justify  too  many  means.'  She 
stared at him again and he nodded,  in a trance. 
'But I see that you are  kind  -  and that is  a 
saving grace,  for  if  your  purposes  are  the 
right ones'
    She left the sentence hanging,  leaving  him 
to wonder what the right purposes could be.  The 
lady seemed to be in a trance herself:  she  was 
still stroking his palm with her nails.  Beneath 
the rouge she seemed to blush.
    'Shuffle these and take a  card,'  she  said 
in a voice as dark as the booth,  handing  him a 
tarot pack.  He did so.
    'The Searcher  -  as  I  thought:  you  will 
search long and hard, but  do  not  forget  that 
the Searcher sits on a patch of diamonds.
    Automatically he  looked  under  the  chair. 
The lady was now opening a huge tome.
    'When were you born, dear?'
    '21 March 1909,' he replied.
    She gasped.  'The cusp ... Pisces and Aries: 
you sit between the two greatest stools  in  the 
heavenly bodies and you must take  care  not  to 
fall through the middle.'
    He moved uneasily in his chair.
    'I am the Alpha and the Omega,'  she  chant-
ed, 'the beginning and the  end ...  You,  young 
man, are destined for something immense and far-
reaching, yet deep and hidden.  In you is a pot-
ential for future the like of  which  the  world 
has never known ...  I  will  now look  into the 
crystal.'
    She gazed long and hard into the crystal and 
a puzzled look crept across her face.
    'That's ... that's extraordinary!'
    'What is it? What do you see?'
    Instead of replying  she  got  up  from  her 
chair and switched on a light.  The  booth inst-
antly looked more like a junk room than a  magic 
emporium.  There was a half-eaten sandwich and a 
bottle of beer on the floor.
    She stared once more at the crystal ball.
    'It's still there!' she gasped.
    'What is?'  He  leaned forward  to  see  for 
himself.
    A look of pure  greed  had  crept  into  her 
eyes.  She gazed at him as  though he  were  the 
rest of her sandwich.
    'Money,' she murmured.  'I see money.  Money 
surrounds you wherever I look ...'