"They may have blamed the Yeti for bringing such a monster," commented Barma Shah. "But here comes the porter with the coffee. So let us avoid the word from now on."
"But where is Muscles?" queried Biff.
"Back in the valley, looking after the plane," explained his uncle. "Some of the tribesmen—Sherpas they call themselves—guided us over to the mountain pass and then returned to their valley. We miscalculated slightly or we would have been here sooner."
Despite the delay, the caravan completed its next stage ahead of the impending snowstorm. The patient yaks, creatures that resemble both the ox and the American buffalo, with long hair like the fleece of a sheep, responded to continued prodding as though they recognized the need for hurry. Tikse, the chief porter and head yak driver, had a comment on that score.
"Listen and you hear yak grunt," he told the boys. "That means two things."
"And what are those?" asked Biff.
"One thing, yak like what happen, yes. Other thing, yak do not like what happen, no."
"And how," queried Mike, "do you tell the grunts apart?"
"No way to tell," replied Tikse. "Yak grunt the same exactly, whichever way he feel. But it is important just the same."
"And what makes it so important," demanded Li, "if you don't know the difference?"