- Victim #2 introduces himself to Subtle. His name's Abel Drugger and he's a shop owner who slings tobacco for a living.
- He also thinks Subtle is a Doctor whose specialty is astrology and he wants Subtle to use some of his magic-y "science" to help him figure out the best way to set up his new store so his business will do well.
- Drugger asks for advice about—get this—where his door should be, where the shelving should go, how he should display his wares, and so on.
- Face walks in the room and greets Drugger like the guy's his new bestie. He starts going on and on about why Drugger totally deserves Subtle's help and says Drugger always sells him top-notch tobacco and never tries to cheat him.
- Now Subtle starts in. He claims that he can tell by looking at Drugger that the guy's lucky and is going to have a ton of success.
- He pretends he's an expert at something called "metoposcopy" and proceeds to read Drugger's fortune by checking out his face and forehead. Then he acts like he can tell the guy's fortune by checking out his hands and fingers. (That's called "chiromanty.")
- Now Subtle starts giving Drugger some lame advice about how to decorate and organize his shop. He tells him to put a magnet under the door to draw in customers.
- The final touch is when Subtle pretends to see into Drugger's future and says he thinks the guy's got a shot at getting his hands on the "philosopher's stone." (Remember, that's the stuff that's supposed to turn lousy metal into precious metal.)
- Drugger's entranced: it's pretty easy for Face to get him to cough up some money.
- Before he leaves, Drugger whips out his almanac and asks if Subtle can cross out all of his bad luck days.
- (An old-timey almanac like the one Drugger carries around is basically a calendar/horoscope with a bunch of astrological charts and stuff. By the way, after The Bible, almanacs were the second best selling books in 17th Century England.)
- Face tells him to leave the almanac behind and promises that Subtle will have it done by the afternoon...for a small fee, of course.
- Then Face starts talking about how valuable he is to the whole operation since he's the one who actually goes out, finds the victims, and invites them back to the house to see Subtle.
- Oh, we're back to that, are we?