A business man died without indicating which of his three sons should take over the firm. The family lawyer had asked him as he died whom he wanted and he said something vague that seemed to have no meaning at all, until it is repeated to Henry.
I really don’t think I believe the solution of the puzzle at all. The word said as the man died was “tu,” as in “et tu, Brute,” as in he wanted his son Brutus to take over. I don’t buy it. No sir, not at all. A man on the verge of death with only enough strength left to say one syllable somehow seems to me unlikely to cast in his mind for a quote from Shakespeare from which he can extract that syllable. Just saying, “Bru—” seems a lot more straightforward.
The word game earlier in the story, trying to find a set of four English homonyms with four distinct spellings and four distinct meanings, is vaguely interesting, however.