re him, and shouldered his musket.

All at once the boat went into a long drain, and it became as dark as
if he had been in his box.

"Where am I going now?" he thought. "Yes, yes, that's the Goblin's
fault. Ah! if the little lady only sat here with me in the boat, it
might be twice as dark for what I should care."

Suddenly there came a great Water Rat, which lived under the drain.

"Have you a passport?" said the Rat. "Give me your passport."

But the Tin Soldier kept silence, and held his musket tighter than
ever. The boat went on, but the Rat came after it. Hu! how he gnashed
his teeth, and called out to the bits of straw and wood.

"Hold him! hold him! He hasn't paid toll--he hasn't shown his
passport!"

But the stream became stronger and stronger. The Tin Soldier could
see the bright daylight where the arch ended; but he heard a roaring
noise, which might well frighten a bolder man. Only think--just where
the tunnel ended, the drain ran into a great canal; and for him that
would have been as dangerous as for us to be carried down a great
waterfall.

Now he was already so near it that he could not stop. The boat was
carried out, the poor Tin Soldier stiffening himself as much as he
could, and no one could say that he moved an eyelid. The boat whirled
round three or four times, and was full of water to the very edge--it
must sink. The Tin Soldier stood up to his neck in water, and the boat
sank deeper and deeper, and the paper was loosened more and more; and
now the water closed over the soldier's head. Then he thought of the
pretty little Dancer, and how he should never see her again; and it
sounded in the Soldier's ears:

"Farewell, farewell, thou warrior brave,
For this day thou must die!"

And now the paper parted, and the Tin Soldier fell out; but at that
moment he was snapped up by a great fish.

Oh, how dark it was in that fish's body! It was darker yet than in
the drain tunnel; and then it was very narrow too. But the Tin Soldier
remained unmoved, and lay at full length shouldering his musket.

The fish swam to and fro; he made the most wonderful movements, and
then became quite still. At last something flashed through him like
lightning. The daylight shone quite clear, and a voice said aloud,
"The Tin Soldier!" The fish had been caught, carried to market,
bought, and taken into the kitchen, where the cook cut him open with a
large knife. She seized the Soldier round the body with both her