"What in the world can be the matter in that boat? It must have something to do with the baby." Garnet answered without hesitation. "Yes, Miss Ethel, I've been watching, and there is certainly something seriously wrong. I'll go close enough to hail them." The men in the fishing boat began to wave their hats as distress signals, and the Doctor nodded and raised his hand as a signal that he was coming. When the launch came within hailing distance, one of the men shouted out an explanation. The propeller had become entangled in a piece of floating net, and so rendered useless. The party came from the Tournequin Bay section, where an epidemic of diphtheria was raging. This baby had not improved under the "granny" treatment of the neighborhood, in which there were no doctors. In consequence, it was now being taken to Beaufort to receive the antitoxin--that new remedy for which such miracles were claimed. Even as the man was speaking, the baby was seized with a fit of strangling that brought it almost to the point of death. Came a transformation scene. Here was no longer Garnet, the crazed drug fiend. In his stead was revealed the man and the physician--he who in times of distress and suffering had always given his services to the best of his ability. In this moment the old instinct rose dominant. He called to them in a loud clear voice. "I am a physician. If you will permit me I'll come aboard and try to give temporary relief. Something must be done promptly, or the child will die." In order to save Ethel as far as possible from any danger of contagion, Garnet brought the launch alongside the stern of the fishing boat, since the baby was in the bow. As he stepped aboard the other craft he bade one of the men let the launch drop back astern to full length of the painter. While this was being done, the physician, medicine case in hand, hurried to the child that lay struggling spasmodically in its mother's arms. An instant of examination showed to Garnet's practiced eyes that the throat was almost completely filled with the membrane characteristic of the disease, and that it must be only a matter of minutes before suffocation would ensue unless effective measures for relief were taken. A glance to the shore two miles away told him that the delay in reaching it would prove fatal to his patient's chances. It was evident that if the baby's life were to be saved he must act--and act now. Nor did he hesitate. With lightning-like rapidity he took out his emergency kit of surgeons' tools. He bade the most intelligent-appearing of the men hold the child according to his precise directions. Then, with his coat off and shirt sleeves rolled up, Doctor Garnet braced himself in the tossing boat and performed the operation of tracheotomy, while the mother crouched weeping and praying with her face hidden in her hands.