midday
Steve Allenwood and his affairs had occupied his thoughts all the morning , and had interfered with a due appreciation of the dinner he had just eaten . He was perturbed , and Millie had set the match to the powder train of his emotions and energies . His admiration for Steve was as unstinted as his sympathy for the call that had been suddenly made on him . But he knew Steve , and realized the difficulties that lay before him in carrying out the programme of kindly purpose Millie and he had worked out over their midday meal . It was this which had brought him to the conclusion which had inspired his laugh . 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 .