The strike was worse the next day, and so many violent acts were committed that extra policemen had to be sent for. Several strike-breakers were attacked as they tried to run the electric cabs and were quite badly hurt. Mr. Newton wrote vivid stories about the occurrences, and the _Leader_ had a strong editorial, condemning the strikers.
This made the union men more angry than ever at the _Leader_, and they seemed to think Mr. Newton was the chief one on whom they could vent their ill feeling. They shook their fists at him whenever he appeared, and once a stone was hurled through the air at him, narrowly missing his head.
“You’d better look out,” some of the policemen advised him.
Larry had plenty of copy to take down that day, and made three trips. The last two times he noticed as he was going up the stairs of the elevated road, where he took a train that brought him close to the _Leader_ office, three men regarding him closely. Once he heard one of the trio say:
However, he did not think they meant him, and so he gave the matter no more consideration. He took the story to the office and came back for more. There was quite a bunch of copy waiting, as several incidents had occurred that Mr. Newton had preferred writing about instead of telephoning.
As Larry was going up the stairs to the train with this last batch of copy he saw the three men again.
Two of them made a grab for the boy, for the stairs were screened in from observation, and no one was in sight.
At first Larry thought they were perhaps only trying to play a joke on him. He involuntarily moved to one side, but, as he did so, one of the men grasped him by the coat collar. Larry began to struggle, but another of the men clasped him about the arms, and a hand was placed over the boy’s mouth to prevent any cry issuing.
“Whistle for the cab!” the shortest of the men whispered, and a shrill note came from the lips of someone.
Larry felt himself lifted up and borne down the stairs. He heard a confused noise and then a loud explosion. It subsequently developed that some of the strikers set off a bomb at that time. This drew a big crowd near the scene of the explosion and the vicinity of the elevated railroad steps was almost deserted.