"What message could they convey?
And who sent them?
And to whom ?" He wrote that night to the Resident at Kohara, on the chance that he might be able to throw some light upon the problem.
"Have you heard anything of a melon and a bag of grain ?" he wrote.

"It seems an absurd question, but please make inquiries.

Find out what it all means." The messenger carried the letter over the Malakand Pass and up the road by Dir, and in due time an answer was returned.

Ralston received the answer late one afternoon, when the light was failing, and, taking it over to the window, read it through.

Its contents fairly startled him.
"I have made inquiries," wrote Captain Phillips, the Resident, "as you wished, and I have found out that some melons and bags of grain were sent by Shere Ali's orders a few weeks ago as a present to one of the chief Mullahs in the town." Ralston was brought to a stop.