As Devine has no living relations, it makes sense for the impoverished old men to cook up a scheme by which Michael will assume the dead fisherman's identity, and the pair will divide the money between themselves.
Michael will assume Devine's identity.
I was a student in Fairfax county and within apparently one of the best school systems in the nation, yet looking back there was plenty of things that I should have learned but did not and that worries me for future students.