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They used their windlasses to take the weight of the paddles, slipped the pawl off the ratchet and then slipped the windlass off the spigot to let the sluice paddles close noisily under their own weight. They then proceeded to the gates in front of the boats and, using the windlasses again, they arduously wound the sluice paddles up. The dark green, filthy water, roared, boiled, bubbled and swirled into the lock and around the boats, bumping them against the lock walls. The boats rose, slowly but inexorably, on the rising water. The lock keeper and Avril, one on each side of the lock, kept the straps taught as the boats were lifted up to the level of the canal beyond the gates. The
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