nd effort of the
transfer might even hasten it. Then, too, the wife and children would
be denied the satisfaction of the last moments with the departing
soul of the husband and father, for the _Albert_ was to sail at once.
The summer was short, and up and down the coast many others were in
sore need of the Doctor's care, and delay might cost some of them
their lives.

Grenfell sat silently for several minutes observing his patient and
asking himself the question: "What can I do for this poor man?" If
there had only been a doctor that the man could have called a few days
earlier his life, at least might have been prolonged.

There was but one answer to the question. There was nothing to do but
leave medicine and give advice and directions for the man's care, and
to supply the ill-nourished family much-needed food and perhaps some
warmer clothing.

If there were only a hospital on the coast where such cases could be
taken and properly treated! If there were only some place where
fatherless and orphaned children could be cared for! These were some
of the thoughts that crowded upon Doctor Grenfell as he left the hut
that evening and was rowed back to the _Albert_. And in the weeks that
followed his mind was filled with plans, for never did the picture of
the dying man and helpless little ones fade as he saw it that first
day in Domino Run.

Another call to go ashore came that evening, and the Doctor answered
it promptly. Again he was guided to a little mud hut, but this had an
advantage over the other in that it was well ventilated. The one
window which it boasted was an open hole in the side wall with no
glass or other covering to exclude the fresh air. There was no stove,
and an open fire on the earthen floor supplied warmth, while a large
opening in the roof, for there was no chimney, offered an escape for
the smoke, an offer of which the smoke did not freely take advantage.

On a wooden bench in a corner of the room a man sat doubled up with
pain. Here too was a family consisting of the man's wife and several
children.

"What's the trouble?" asked the Doctor.

"I'm wonderful bad with a distemper in my insides, sir," answered the
man with a groan.

"Been ill long?"

"Aye, sir, for three weeks."

"We'll see what can be done."

"Thank you, sir."

"We'll patch you up and make you as well as ever in a little while,"
assured the Doctor after a thorough examination, for this proved to be
a curable case.

"T