In that brief instant the complete silence of the woods about him had been broken up in startling fashion. No shot from a rifle, no mournful cry of timber-wolf could disturb the spell of nature like the jarring note of the human voice.
But it had another effect. It elicited a response no less startling to the man who had laughed.
"Ho you, Mac!"
Ian Ross halted. He had recognized the voice instantly.
"That you, Steve?"
"Sure," came back the reply.
Instantly the Scotsman's lack of self-consciousness became apparent.
"How in hell did you know it was me?"
It was the turn of the invisible police officer to laugh.
"Guess there's only one laugh like yours north of 60°—less a bull moose can act that way." Then he went on. "Sharp to your left. I'm down here on the creek. I was making your place and this way cuts off quite a piece."