4. (CH.13#4)What figure of speech is the following: “Janie dozed off to sleep but woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark”? What does this sentence mean?

I think this has something to do with Janie's hope that Tea Cake would return. Janie has heard and seen far too many stories of men leaving and simply running away. She wanted the sun or the heavens to watch and light the way back for Tea Cake.