10. The 3-D Hypno-Ring

CHAPTER 10 THE 3-D HYPNO-RING The next morning, George and Harold didn't arrive early at Mr. Krupp's house to wash his car and reshingle his roof. In fact, they were even a little late getting to school. When they finally showed up, Mr. Krupp was standing at the front door waiting for them. And boy, was he mad!

Mr. Krupp escorted the boys into his office and slammed the door. "All right, where were you two this morning?" he growled. "We wanted to come over to your house," said George, "but we were busy trying to figure out the secret of this ring." "What ring?" snapped Mr. Krupp. George held up his hand and showed the ring to Principal Krupp. "It's got one of those weird patterns on it," said Harold. "If you stare at it long enough, a picture appears." "Well, hold it still," snarled Mr. Krupp. "I can't see the darn thing!" "I have to move it back and forth," said George, "or else it won't work."

Mr. Krupp's eyes followed the ring back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and back and forth. "You have to stare deeper into the ring," said Harold. "Deeper... deeeper... deeeeper... deeeeeeeeeper." "You are getting sleepy," said George. "Veeeeery sleeeeeeeeeepy." Mr. Krupp's eyelids began to droop. "l'mmmsssoooosssleeepy," he mumbled. After a few minutes, Mr. Krupp's eyes were closed tight, and he began to snore. "You are under our spell," said George. "When I snap my fingers, you will obey our every command!" SNAP! "Iwwilllloobeyyy," mumbled Mr. Krupp.

"All right," said George. "Have you still got that videotape of me and Harold?" "Yeeessss," mumbled Mr. Krupp. "Well, hand it over, bub," George instructed. Mr. Krupp unlocked a large file cabinet and opened the bottom drawer. He reached in and handed George the videotape. George stuffed it into his backpack. Harold took a different video out of his backpack and put it into the file cabinet. "What's that video?" asked George. "It's one of my little sister's old 'Boomer the Purple Dragon Sing-A-Long' videos." "Nice touch," said George.