ain time.

"I mean what I say," said Claudius. "Could you swear, before the Supreme
Court of the United States, for instance, that I am Claudius, sometime
student, now Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg in
Germany? Could you swear that?"

"My dear boy," said the other, "what in the world are you driving at?"
The Duke realised that he could not conscientiously swear to any such
statement as that proposed by Claudius; and, liking him as he did, he
was much distressed at being put into such a corner.

"I will tell you afterwards what it is about, Duke," said Claudius. "I
am serious, and I would like you to answer the question, though I
foresee that you will say you could not swear to anything of the kind."

"Honestly, Claudius, though there is not the slightest doubt in my mind
that you are what you appear to be, I could not conscientiously swear it
in evidence. I do not know anything about you. But Barker could."

"No, he could not. He knows no more about me than you do, saving that he
met me two or three days sooner. He met me in Heidelberg, it is true,
but he made no inquiries whatever concerning me. It never entered his
head that I could be anything but what I professed to be."

"I should think not, indeed," said the Duke warmly.

"But now that I am here in the flesh, these lawyers are making trouble.
One of them was here a little while since, and he wanted documentary
evidence of my identity."

"Who was the lawyer?"

"A Mr. Screw, one of the executors of the will."

"Who is the other executor?" asked the Duke quickly.

"Barker's father."

The Englishman's face darkened, and he puffed savagely at his cigar. He
had been angry with Barker the day before. Now he began to suspect him
of making trouble.

"What sort of evidence did the man want?" he asked at length.

"Any sort of documentary evidence would do. He asked me for my
certificate of birth, and I told him he could not have it. And then he
went so far as to remark in a very disagreeable way that he could not
authorise me to draw upon the estate until I produced evidence."

"Well, that is natural enough."

"It would have been so at first. But they had accepted the mere
signature to my letter from Heidelberg as proof of my existence, and I
got word in Baden in July that I might draw as much as I pleased. And
now they turn upon me and say I am not myself. Something has happened.
Fortunately I have not touched the money, in spite of