You already know that when the poison gas rolled down on the French trenches and drove the panic-stricken Turcos in headlong flight, a great breach of four miles yawned in the Allied line. By swinging back their left the Canadians barred a portion of this gap, but only a portion. From the little wood on which their left rested to the line of the Yser Canal there was still an undefended gap of at least two and a half miles. Had the Germans been prompt they could have marched through this gap into Ypres, almost without firing a shot. Strange to say, they were slow in moving, and did not push their advantage. As in the First Battle of Ypres, they broke our line, but could do nothing in the breach. Not until the small hours of Friday morning did the first British reinforcements arrive in the gap. They had been drawn chiefly from the 28th Division, which was holding the line from Grafenstafel to Polygon Wood. All the battalions that could be spared from the 28th Division were hurried across the salient, and it was a strange mixture of units that held the pass between the Canadian left and the canal. As the fighting proceeded, this force, which was commanded by Colonel Geddes, altered its character from day to day and almost from hour to hour. A grenade company of the Northumberland Fusiliers, consisting of two officers and 120 men, was added to it by accident. They had been fighting at Hill 60, and had been eight days in the trenches. On the way back to join the 28th Division, to which they belonged, these grimy, weary, and hungry warriors fell in with Geddes's force, and promptly took their places in his firing line. That night they lived up to the fame of the old "Fighting Fifth." [Illustration: Second Battle of Ypres. Position on the morning of Friday, April 23, 1915.] By the morning of Friday the Germans had crossed the canal south of Steenstraate, and were threatening that village, which was held by the French. Allenby's three divisions of cavalry, along with two Indian divisions, were being hurried up with all speed to help the French, who were struggling on the west of the canal. Meanwhile all along the line from Polygon Wood to the canal the big guns of the enemy were heavily shelling our lines. The fighting, as we already know, was heaviest against the Canadian 3rd Brigade, which had suffered great losses both from gas and from artillery fire. There were gaps all along our front, and in one place the machine guns of the enemy were behind our trenches.