Interfacing with rope leak detector cable?

So, apparently it is resistance, but I'm curious.

Since it's got an RJ11 on the end, I grabbed a phone jack and hooked it up to an LED and battery (with a resistor for the LED of course.) When I stuck the sensor wire in a cup of water, the LED lit up.

So, I have my answer...just not sure why my DMM couldn't detect it with the resistance or diode checker parts :confused: