NEW USE FOR NAVY BLANKETS 63 



ground right enough; they were felted and pressed 

 together into a thick, hard mass. From the dawn of 

 time they had served our brave warriors at sea, and it 

 is by no means impossible that some of them had 

 gruesome stories to tell of the days of Tordenskjold. 

 The first thing I did, on obtaining possession of these 

 treasures, was to get them into the dyeing-vat. They 

 were unrecognizable when I got them back in ultra- 

 marine blue, or whatever it was called. The metamor- 

 phosis was complete: their warlike past was wiped out. 

 My intention was to have these two hundred blankets 

 made into Polar clothing, and I took counsel with myself 

 how I might get this done. To disclose the origin of 

 the stuff would be an unfortunate policy. No tailor in 

 the world would make clothes out of old blankets, I was 

 pretty sure of that. I had to hit upon some stratagem. 

 I heard of a man who was a capable worker at his trade, 

 and asked him to come and see me. My office looked 

 exactly like a woollen warehouse, with blankets every- 

 where. The tailor arrived. " Was that the stuff? ' 

 " Yes, that was it. Just imported from abroad. A 

 great bargain. A lot of samples dirt cheap." I had 

 put on my most innocent and unconcerned expression. 

 I saw the tailor glance at me sideways; I suppose he 

 thought the samples were rather large. ' A closely 

 woven stuff," said he, holding it up to the light. " I 

 could almost swear it was ' felted.' We went care- 

 fully through every single sample, and took the number. 



