Suddenly there came along a great water-rat that lived in the tunnel . ` Have you a passport ? ' asked the rat . ` Out with your passport ! ' But the Tin-soldier was silent , and grasped his gun more firmly . The boat sped on , and the rat behind it . Ugh ! how he showed his teeth , as he cried to the chips of wood and straw : ` Hold him , hold him ! he has not paid the toll ! He has not shown his passport ! ' But the current became swifter and stronger . The Tin-soldier could already see daylight where the tunnel ended ; but in his ears there sounded a roaring enough to frighten any brave man . Only think ! at the end of the tunnel the gutter discharged itself into a great canal ; that would be just as dangerous for him as it would be for us to go down a waterfall . Now he was so near to it that he could not hold on any longer . On went the boat , the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as he could : no one should say of him afterwards that he had flinched . The boat whirled three , four times round , and became filled to the brim with water : it began to sink ! The Tin-soldier was standing up to his neck in water , and deeper and deeper sank the boat , and softer and softer grew the paper ; now the water was over his head . He was thinking of the pretty little Dancer , whose face he should never see again , and there sounded in his ears , over and over again : ` Forward , forward , soldier bold ! Death 's before thee , grim and cold ! '
The paper came in two , and the soldier fell -- but XXXXX that moment he was swallowed by a great fish .
along as at behind for in into on over to