"The message was sent from end to end of Chiltistan." "What gift ?" asked Shere Ali, in genuine surprise.
"Your Highness has forgotten?
The melons and the bags of grain." Shere Ali was silent for a few moments.

Then he said: "And how was the gift interpreted ?" Ahmed Ismail smiled in the darkness.
"There are wise men in Chiltistan, and they found the riddle easy to read.

The melons were the infidels which would be cut to pieces, even as a knife cuts a melon.

The grain was the army of the faithful." Again Shere Ali was silent.

He stood with his eyes upon his companion.
"Thus they understand my gift to the Mullah ?" he said at length.
"Thus they understood it," said Ahmed Ismail.