The landscape still presented the same cheerless aspect. Having carefully consulted his compass Tom headed in a direction which took him straight toward an impenetrable wall of gloomy mist.
To be once more actually on the way filled him with a huge sense of satisfaction. Over ridges, across valleys now enveloped in the thick vapors, jogging along in the half-light between, he made good progress. And all the while the appearance of the world about him was gradually changing. The clouds in the east had become tinged with delicate tones of purple and gold, the rays of the rising sun shot high above them.
Tom in a receptive mood halted on the top of a high ridge to study the glories of the awakening day. A glowing rim was rising above the eastern hills. Slowly the whole of the pale golden ball rose into view, and its rays, soon shooting across the wide landscape, transformed the heavy, leaden gray vapors into objects of ethereal lightness.
“Dave would certainly call that ‘glorious,’” mused Tom with a smile. His eyes followed a flock of birds circling high in the sky. “The chap who doesn’t rise early in the morning misses a whole lot!”
It was so pleasant to watch the changes of nature that Tom continued to stay until the mists were in full retreat before the strengthening shafts of light.
His eyes, wandering from place to place, suddenly came to a halt on a faint speck of dark far off in the valley.
Somehow or other, it did not have the appearance of a bush, or any other kind of vegetation, but rather suggested to his mind the form of some animal stretched at full length on the ground. His utmost efforts to make out the exact nature of the object were unavailing, which, to one who possessed as large a bump of curiosity as Tom, was a highly unsatisfactory state of affairs.
“It’s so early I guess I can afford to take a bit of time,” he reflected. “By George! I will!”
Having come to this conclusion, he set off down the incline, presently reaching a grassy valley. From this point the irregular character of the ground shut the odd-looking spot of dark from view.
It proved to be much farther off than Tom had supposed, and but for a dogged determination to carry to a successful conclusion any task once started, he might have faced about and ridden away.