tail-race

It had been tossed around at random since Christmas Day, and might have come by its dilapidations at any time since it was plucked out of the frosty reeds, where the drift of the tail-race had carried it, while the heavier body from which it had been flung was gradually edged aside under the leaning bank.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

The miller brought a boat hook from among his store of tools, and with care they guided the obdurate body along to the edge of the tail-race, where they could descend to water level and grasp the folds of his garments.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

Either he had missed it, or, if it had been flung well out over the drift of the tail-race, he must look for it on the far side of the channel opposite where the body had been found.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

It would either be drifted aside in the same direction as the body, in which case it might be sunk deep somewhere in the narrowing channel, or else, if it fell on the other side of the main force of the tail-race, edged away like the skull-cap into the far shore.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

He cannot alone have staggered far after that blow was struck, and he was just past the tail-race, or it would have drifted him the opposing way.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

The frost continued that night, harder than ever, freezing over the reedy shallows in the mill-pond, and fringing the townward shore with a white shelf of ice, but not yet sealing over the deeper water or the tremulous path of the tail-race, so that the little boys who went hopefully to examine the ice in the early morning returned disappointed.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

Rimy grass overhung the high bank, undercut here by the strength of the tail-race.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

A few yards along there, just past the nearest stump, cut down to hip-height and bristling with wands like hair on the giant head of a terrified man, they had drawn Ailnoth's body laboriously along under the eroded bank, and brought him to shore where the meadow sloped down more gently to the outflow of the tail-race.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

Cadfael stood on the rim of the high bank where Ailnoth's body had bobbed and nestled, held fast there by the slight side impulse from the tail-race of the mill.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986

The wheel was still, the sluice above it closed, and the overflow discharging its steady stream aside into the tail-race deep below, and so out into the pool, a silent force perceptible only as a shudder along the surface, which otherwise lay so still.

The Raven In The Foregate Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1986