“Then, who killed my baby?” exclaimed Cabot.
[X]
TREACHERY
“Who killed your baby?” replied the venerable old man of the Caves of Kar. “I will tell you. Even such a traitor as the renegade Yuri would not dare to violate his solemn oath. He had sworn to harm no person. Yet little Kew stood between him and a coveted throne. What could he do under such circumstances? Only a diabolical brain, like that possessed by Yuri, could conceive of the solution which he concocted. In his capacity as king and hence interpreter of all laws, he interpreted his own promise as follows—”
“Yes, yes! Go on!” exclaimed Cabot, exasperated. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”
“I was just about to tell you when you interrupted me,” resumed Glamp-glamp in a mildly reproving tone. “Prince Yuri ruled that, because little Kew was your son, and because you are a beast from another world, therefore little Kew was a beast, likewise, and so was not a ‘person,’ strictly speaking, and so did not come within the literal scope of the protection of the promise, which was ‘to harm no person.’ Having ruled thus, the miscreant then proceeded to stab the baby through the heart with his own hands.”
“The villain!” hissed Cabot, clenching his fists. But what could a mere earth man do against such a schemer?
Glamp-glamp went on with his story:
“He left his jeweled dagger sticking in the death wound which it had made, sneeringly remarking: ‘Thus, with the seal of my family, I seal the deed which makes me King of Cupia.’ So came King Yuri the First to the Cupian throne.”