The Pendragon Legend by Antal Szerb

explain how he did it. He says it was the family fairy, Tylwyth Teg … but that’s only his little joke, teasing me about my obsession with folklore.”
    “And the second time?”
    “That I can’t tell you exactly. It wasn’t here, it was at Pendragon House in London. A few days after my uncle met you at Lady Malmsbury-Croft’s he arrived home unexpectedly—much earlier than planned. I’m the only person he’s told that someone is trying to kill him … But the whole thing is so very strange … ”
    “In what way?”
    “Well—make of this what you will—he says that poison gas wassomehow pumped into his room. But … I’m not sure how to say this … gases don’t affect him. In the war … ”
    This second story I naturally did not believe. The Earl, like so many other people who suffer from nerves, seemed to be obsessed with the notion that someone was out to kill him with poison gas. It was just luck that he had a complementary delusion that he was immune to its effects.
    “Well, it certainly explains why he doesn’t feel like chatting to me about seventeenth-century mysticism. I think anyone else would have withdrawn the invitation.”
    “But that would have been ungentlemanly.”
    “And something else is becoming clear,”—it came to me in a flash. “Do you know that Maloney and I are under constant surveillance ?”
    “You’re imagining things,” she replied.
    “Of course. I frequently do. But this time there are facts. The cartridges were taken from my revolver. My suitcases were searched. I ought in fact to have left immediately. But somehow … it was all so improbable I couldn’t believe it was really happening .”
    She gazed at me in despair.
    “My God, that’s dreadful. But please, do try to understand what an extraordinary situation we are in … and who knows what dangers the Earl has been forewarned about …
    “All the same, I beg you to stay,” she went on. “I know what a sacrifice it will be for you to remain in a place where you could be under such a horrible suspicion … but it’s for my sake. Let it be enough for you that I, a member of the family, would unhesitatingly trust my life to you. I have complete faith in my intuition. And my uncle says anyone who loves books cannot be a bad person . You’ll see—he’ll understand everything soon enough, and make it all up to you.
    “But until that time,” she continued, holding out her hand to me, “please, please, don’t leave me alone. I have no one. My uncle has gone back into his shell. Osborne is completely unreliable. Doctor … this place frightens me.”
    I stroked her hand, and promised to stay by her side.
    I knew I was not in the least like the young heroes of Americanmovies, who would take on and destroy the entire New York underworld if the girl of their heart were in danger … but this was primarily a matter of moral support. Cynthia could not be left to face her fears alone, and she needed help in solving the mystery.
    “Cynthia,” I asked. “Do you have any idea who could possibly want him dead?”
    “None at all, absolutely none.”
    “What about the Roscoe heirs?” I asked, in another flash of inspiration. I had remembered the murky tales I’d heard from Maloney, during that evening full of suspicion in the London night club.
    “Who?” she asked, in surprise.
    “What, haven’t you heard of William Roscoe?”
    “Of course I have. He was a friend of my grandfather’s—a very wealthy man. Wait a minute—now I remember—my aunt, the Duchess of Warwick, once warned me never to mention the name in my uncle’s presence … but I don’t recall why. What do you know, Doctor? Tell me at once.”
    “I know nothing for certain, just a few words dropped by an unreliable source.”
    “Still, you must tell me everything.”
    “Apparently this Roscoe stipulated in his will that his fortune, which would otherwise go to his wife, should pass to the Earl of Gwynedd in the event of his dying an