the hour of
five
Those who stood around now began to tremble . But Mahmoud treated the whole affair as a joke , and assured them that the pen was only making them sport . And again they went on diverting themselves . An hour later the clocks , in the usual sequence , struck the hour of five . And now the favorite stole aside , and placing the reed on a table repeated her former question . And the pen wrote down the number Thus , with each hour , the number indicated was lesser by one than the previous number .