He decided to write to Alwa, but to open negotiations with a very thin and delicately inserted wedge.
He could write.

The priests had overlooked that opportunity, and had taught him in his boyhood; in that one thing he was their equal.

But the other things that they had taught him, too, offset his penmanship.
He was too proud to write--too lazy, too enamoured of his dignity.
He called a court official, and the man sat very humbly at his feet--listened meekly to the stern command to secrecy--and took the letter from dictation.
Alwa was informed, quite briefly, that in view of certain happenings in Howrah City His Highness the Maharajah had considered it expedient to set a guard over the Christian missionaries in the city, for their safety.

The accompanying horse was a gift to the Alwa-sahib.

The Alwa-sahib himself would be a welcome guest whenever he might care to come.
The document was placed in a silver tube and scaled.