Once more my cargo of souls had been safely delivered and the beast liberated.

It was time to return to the embarkation point and receive a new beast of burden. Outside, the real world was in the throes of the industrial revolution and many souls found themselves abruptly transferred to my world. I was a Ferryman and plied the waterways collecting the transient souls of the departed and also the souls of the damned. The boat was the ultimate judge of those we picked up from the waters of life. Those deemed worthy would scramble up the nets and climb into the front of the boat. The damned would find that the boat would not accept them and in climbing out onto the towpath would be devoured by the beast. There they would serve by pulling the boat to the final lock, by straining into the harness. At the end of the journey the pure waters from the top would dissolve the beast and set the repentant souls free. I had done my penance inside the beast and found that I did not yet feel that I had earned my release and had been offered an apprenticeship by the Ferryman I had pulled along the towpaths. I accepted and in time I became a Ferryman in sole charge of my own narrow boat. The centuries had passed to this present time of industrial expansion and the accidental death rate had increased far more than in the past. Now that warfare had virtually ceased in England since the time of the Civil War, it was my counterparts in Europe that did the collection from the old battlefields. The waterways into the cities paralleled the water supplies to feed the thirst and needs of the people. Unseen and out of reach of the living were the canals of the underworld, reaching into every settlement since human life had built places to live. Sometimes the tread of the beast would have to leave the towpath where the going got difficult. The canal would disappear into the marshes and the bank become hard to find. It was here that we would find some poor lost soul that had become so confused by the manner of their death that they had struggled further and further from the towpath. The Ferryman and his beast would continue to search until they found the desperate spirit and helped the person aboard. The water began to drain away from the final, lock and the boat had reached the level of the bottom of the gate. I had passed this point many times before on my return journey and continued to drop until the tunnel mouth opened. As it opened, the water flow took the boat through on the surge and I passed through into the underworld. I heard the gate close behind me, sealing the entry. Something reached out for the rope on the bow and began to tug on the rope. Many more bony hands grabbed hold and the narrow boat slid along through the semi darkness. Things had changed somewhat since I last had travelled this way. The stables of the beasts had gone and in their place a dry dock had been built. It was to this place that the imps had pulled me. The narrow boat entered the lock and the gate shut tight. As the water drained away the boat settled onto the trolleys with an audible creak. Once again the imps hauled the boat forwards through the end gate and into an open

shipyard. Here muscular devils, shiny with sweat, clustered around the stern of the boat. With their clawed hands they opened the back of the boat like a ripped, tin can. They bent and twisted the hull as if it were paper, into strange industrial shapes that I could not understand. A great central shaft was fitted into supports with chains and pulleys constructed around it. Some kind of mechanism, attached to many pedals was inserted around the shaft. It seemed to be deeper inside the end of the boat than it could possibly be. A large hatch was hinged and fitted to the back with a seat for me to sit upon, next to the tiller. I watched as a hoard of imps dragged a brass propeller across the shipyard floor direct from the forge and still glowing. A larger than normal devil picked up the still glowing propeller and hammered it onto the stub of the shaft, pinching the hub shut. I moved out of the way to allow the imps to fit something that I had not seen before onto the bulkhead. It was a simple lever labelled, forwards and reverse. In the distance I could hear screaming and the terrified sobbing of the damned. Hoards of black and red imps were driving a crowd towards the back of the boat. One of the demons gestured me away from the stern and I watched horrified as the hatch automatically lifted on the hinge. Into this dark and cramped space the crowd of the damned were driven into the engine hold. Hundreds of them disappeared into this hole before my astonished eyes and then the hatch dropped back. The imps spread over the bottom of the boat and became a new layer of impenetrable pitch and blended into each other. The boat was dragged back into the dry dock and I heard the sound of the water, rushing in. The gates opened and the boat lay idle waiting for my command. I put my hand onto the lever and pulled it back to reverse and the propeller began to turn. Slowly the narrow boat began to edge into reverse and wallow backwards until we reached the fork. With a turn of the tiller and the lever into forward we surged into the other channel. Curious, I pushed the lever far forwards to see what effect it would have on the boat. The boat plunged forwards breaking a bow wave over the edges of the banks and from the hold I could hear anguished moans from the damned as they were pushed to the limits of exertion. Out of pity I eased back to a more steady speed to the pace I was used to with the pull of the beast. We entered the first lock to get up to the level of the shadow-lands. I soon found with the new engine, the staircase locks were much easier to negotiate. There were souls to save and those damned that had not fallen into Hell to collect. A new voyage lay before me and more solitude than I was used to. I would miss the beast!