"How are we to prove that?"
"It will be difficult. One thing is absolutely essential. We must find this Ralph Harding, and persuade him, if we can, to exonerate your father and place the guilt where it properly belongs."
"Does father know where to find Harding?"
"No; if he did, the greatest difficulty in our way would be removed."
"Then I don't see that we can do anything," said Bert, disappointed.
"The task is difficult, but not impossible. All we know is, that only two months after the robbery Harding disappeared. It was reported that he went to the West, but this was by no means certain. From that day to this, nothing is positively known as to his whereabouts."
"Then I don't see what can be done," repeated Bert.
"There is one thing to guide us," continued Uncle Jacob; "the man's occupation. There is a fair probability that he is working in some shoe town, that is, if he is still alive."
"There are a good many shoe towns," objected Bert.
"True; the clew is only a faint one, yet sometimes a faint clew leads to important discoveries."