The Sultan's own heart began to beat when he saw his own name written before his eyes, and he inquired with something like consternation, "What dost thou want of me?"
The pen immediately wrote down again these two words, "Mahmoud! Mahmoud!" and then lay still.
"That is my name," said the Sultan; "but who then art thou. O invisible spirit?"
The pen again arose and wrote beneath the name of Mahmoud this name also, "Halil Patrona!"
Mahmoud trembled at this name. It was the name of a man who had been murdered by one of his ancestors, and if the apparition of a spirit be terrible in itself, how much more the spirit of a murdered man!
"What dost thou want here?" exclaimed the terrified Sultan.
The pen answered, "To warn thee!"
"Perchance a danger threatens me, eh?" inquired the Sultan.
"'Tis near thee!" wrote the pen.
"Whence comes this danger?"