Gyp had not occupied the net for any great length of time, but he had become very much attached to it, and vigorously resisted all efforts to deprive him of its clinging comfort. Force and strategy were tried in vain. Then Sube suggested the use of hypnotism.
"You see," he explained, "if I could charm 'im like they do snakes, he'd be as gentle as a little rabbit, and I could untangle 'im from that net as easy as unrollin' a piece of paper."
"Snake charmin' is all right if it works; but if it don't work, you get killed! Go to it, if you can do it! Say, how do you charm a thing, anyway?"
"That's easy. You jus' look 'em in the eye and kinda whistle a little tune, and keep on lookin' 'em in the eye and gettin' closer and closer, and pretty soon without their knowin' what you're doin' at all—why, they're all charmed! But if they get on that you're charmin' 'em! Wow!—Then look out!"
Gizzard was greatly interested in the occult art. "How can you tell when you're done?" he asked eagerly.
"I'll show you!" Sube bent over Gyp the Blood and gazed steadily into the brightly gleaming eyes. Meanwhile he had begun to whistle a little tune strangely reminiscent of the Streets of Cairo. But Gyp the Blood did not easily succumb to hypnotic suggestion. He continued to growl peevishly and lashed the floor with the loose end of his tail. Closer and closer bent Sube. The growling diminished. Then it ceased altogether. The distance between the eyes of the boy and the eyes of the cat became a matter of inches. Then there was a terrific snarl!
Sube fell over on his back howling with pain and holding both hands to his nose.
"It's jus' like charmin' snakes," remarked Gizzard as he struggled to control his laughter. "It's all right if it works!" Then, catching sight of Sube's nose, he exclaimed, "Gee! He handed you a good one on the nose! Hurt much?"
"No, not much," Sube prevaricated, for he considered the admission of pain unethical for all save girls and cry-babies. "But I know how to do it now!"