only the finest sort of cuisine and entertainment.

And what entertainment! Andrew had heard incredible stories about the women

at

Lord Carfax's parties. The man was said to have a magnetic personality and a

voracious sexual appetite. Society women of Andrew's acquaintance were either

scandalized by these stories or slyly claimed to have attended his parties,

and

even if they hadn't, all of them doubtless wanted to. In any case, it seemed

that; everyone had been talking for weeks about the party Carfax was throwing

that night. It was to be a masked ball. And Andrew, thanks to his good

friend,

Joey Lymon, had received an invitation!

Andrew had dressed as Napoleon. Joey Lymon had arrived to pick him up dressed

in

a dark costume with a top hat and a long black cloak with a high collar.

"Who are you supposed to be?" asked Andrew.

Joey had smiled. "Can't you tell, Andrew? I'm the Ripper."

"Oh, I say!" Andrew had exclaimed, chuckling. "What a capital idea! Wish I'd

thought of it!"

"Well, we can't have two Rippers at the same party, can we?" Joey said,

opening

the car door for him.

"No, I suppose not," said Andrew. "Still, I ought to have done better than

Napoleon, don't you think? There're bound to be several Napoleons at the

party,

aren't there? I mean, it's sort of an obvious choice."

"Which may be precisely why most people would shy away from it," said Joey as

the car levitated and started moving forward, floating gracefully down the

street, the driver invisible behind the darkly tinted glass that separated

the

front seat from the passenger compartment. "Chances are excellent that

everyone

thought it would be an obvious choice, so perhaps nobody made it, which will

probably leave you as the only Napoleon in attendance."

"You know, you're right. I hadn't thought of that," said Andrew, feeling

better,

though still disappointed that he hadn't thought of going as the Ripper.

"Nigel says that people's reactions .are really very easy to predict," said

Joey. "That's why playing the market is so easy."

Easy! Andrew thought. Good God!

"He says that people are like sheep," Joey went on. "They have a herd

instinct,

and because of that they're easily led. One only has to understand this and

have

a basic grasp of the laws of probability, and anticipating market trends

becomes

a snap."