They traveled all that day, but, whether they made any real progress, or whether they went back or around in a circle, they could only surmise. They tried to keep ascending the mountain, and this was the only means they had of telling which way to go. "If we could only see something," said Nat, "it wouldn't be so lonesome. A fox, or a rabbit, or even a mountain lion. I don't believe I'd shoot one, I'd want his company." "I'm sorry I got you fellows into this scrape," Jack put in. "I'd go back with you, and begin over again, all alone, only I guess it would be just as bad to go back as it is to go ahead, so we might as well keep on." "Well, I reckon you'll not go on alone," said Nat, decidedly, and John, who had recovered his former good-natured, nodded in assent. As their horses stumbled on, once more the curtain of night began to descend, hastened by the thick fog. Would it never rise? How long were they to be hidden under the white vail? Suddenly, as they urged on their tired animals, a spear of light seemed to pierce the gathering gloom ahead of them. At the sight of it the horses threw up their heads and put forward their ears. The spear grew brighter. Then it pierced the mist. All at once a puff of wind brushed aside the white clinging wreaths of vapor that had so long enshrouded them. The fog rolled away, and there, in front of them was the setting sun, in a halo of glory. As it shone the beams were caught and reflected from a distant peak. "Golden Glow! Golden Glow!" cried Jack. "There is the mountain we have been searching for! Now to find my father!" CHAPTER XXXI JACK AND NAT PRISONERS The three travelers came to a halt on the shelf of a high cliff that towered above their heads. It was a wide and safe road they had emerged upon, and it could be seen winding on and up, until it was lost in the mist which was rapidly being driven forward by the wind. "There is the road to Golden Glow!" exclaimed Jack. "Come on. We are on the right trail now." "Better go easy," cautioned John. "It's getting night, and we can't travel far. Here's a good place to camp, and we can start early in the morning. I guess the fog has lifted to stay." Though Jack was impatient to press forward, he realized that what John said was sensible. He stood for awhile looking at the shifting light as it was reflected from the sun on the top of the lofty peak. He felt that at last he had reached the beginning of the end of his long search. Would it be successful? Would he find his father? Would he be in time to see him alive? All this Jack thought, and much more. Then the light faded as Old Sol sunk behind a mass of clouds, the stern mountains hiding his welcome face, "Now for supper!" cried Nat, in a more cheerful tone than any of the boys had used in the last two days. "I'm as hungry as a bear. I wish I had a nice fresh chicken--"