“He calls himself so, at any rate,” said Barker.

“What do you mean?” asked Mr. Screw quickly, shifting his position.

“Do you think you have taken all the necessary steps towards ascertaining that he is the heir—­the right man—­the real Dr. Claudius?”

“Great heavens!” exclaimed the lawyer, surprised and terribly frightened by Barker’s insinuation, “you don’t mean to say there is any doubt about it, do you?”

“I am inclined to think there is doubt—­yes, decidedly.  It is a very serious matter, and I thought it best to speak to you about it before talking to my father.  You see, though the loss might fall on us, indirectly, the moral responsibility is yours, since you are the lawyers in the case.”

“But your father is one of the executors, Mr. Barker,” said Mr. Screw, who felt obliged to say something, and wanted to gain time.

“My father—­yes,” and Barker smiled disagreeably.  “Yes, he is one of the executors.  But you yourself are the other, Mr. Screw.  And as far as any intelligence in the matter is concerned, you might be alone.”  Barker was willing to flatter the lawyer at the expense of his fond parent.  Screw would be of more use to him than many fathers in this matter.  Mr. Screw relapsed into silence, and sat for some minutes, hooking one leg behind the other, and thrusting as much of his hands into his pockets as those receptacles would contain.  After a time he changed his position, heaved a species of sigh that sounded like the sudden collapse of a set of organ-bellows, and ran his fingers through his thick hair.

Barker thought he was going to speak.  But he was mistaken; Mr. Screw was too much taken aback to speak yet.  Then Barker spoke for him.

“Well,” said he, caressing his foot and looking at the ceiling, “what are you going to do about it?”

“I shall do what is proper in such cases.  I will stop his drawing any more money, and investigate the matter.  If this is not the real Claudius, the real Claudius must be somewhere, and can be found.”

“Perhaps he is dead,” suggested Barker.

“It is about as easy to find a dead man as a live man,” said Screw.  “It is a surer thing, on the whole.  A dead man can’t change his clothes, and get his beard shaved off, and cavoort around the corner.”

“Not generally speaking,” said the other, “no well-regulated corpse would do it, anyhow.  Besides, if he is dead, there must have been some notice of it in the Heidelberg papers.  He belonged to the University, and they always put those things in the local sheet in Germany.”

“That’s so,” said the lawyer.  “Do you know anybody in Heidelberg who would look the matter up, Mr. Barker?”