"Now Pippin," said Merry, "don't go meddling in the affairs of wizards. Go to sleep. Maybe in the morning we can get some answers from Gandalf."
But Pippin could not sleep. The thought of the dark globe grew in his mind. At last he could stand it no longer. He quietly crept to where Gandalf was sleeping, with the round ball lying next to him.
Pippin stealthily lifted the sphere, and at that moment Gandalf moved in his sleep. "You fool!" Pippin muttered to himself. "You're going to get yourself into trouble." But he didn't replace the globe. Instead he took it a short ways away and sat down.
Pippin leaned over the globe. At first it was black, but then a faint glow grew in it and he could not look away. Soon the inside was on fire, and the light within it was spinning. Closer and closer he bent. Then with a strangled cry he fell back.
The whole camp was roused by his shout. The hobbit was shuddering. "It is not for you, Saruman!" he cried.
Pippin told Gandalf what he had seen in the globe, that a horrible figure had asked who he was, and laughed when it learned he was a hobbit. Gandalf guessed that Pippin had seen Sauron himself, and that Sauron would think Pippin was a captive at Orthanc.
While Pippin was resting, Gandalf conferred with Aragorn. "This must be the Palantir of Orthanc," he said. "Now we know how Sauron and Saruman communicated. Aragorn, this is yours by right, receive it in earnest of other things to come."
"Now we must make haste," said Gandalf. "Sauron will be seeking us. I will ride at once with Pippin, so that he will not be tempted to look in the Palantir again. You follow as you can."
Gandalf set Pippen before him on Shadowfax and rode off like the wind. He told him they were going to Minas Tirith, before it was beseiged by war. "Our hope is in speed. In two days you shall see the shadow of Mount Mindolluin and the tower of Denethor white in the morning." Shadowfax tossed his head and sprang forward, and the world rolled away behind them.
