At first this thought alarmed him. It was unpleasant to feel that someone was always looking at you, knowing your every movement so well that they could slip up, and drop notes into your pocket. Larry felt his courage leaving him. He half determined to agree to the gang’s wishes. Then, as he thought of what Mr. Newton had said, he grew braver, and decided to fight to the end. That night, going home, Larry was in quite a crowd on the elevated train. He tried to keep watch, and see if anyone dropped anything into his pockets, but the crowd was so dense that it would have been an easy matter for a person to approach him closely, and escape detection. So Larry was not greatly surprised, when, on reaching the street, he found another missive, in the same language. The same thing happened on two successive nights. Try as he did he could discover no one, however. He began to be quite nervous. A person who could steal up on him in a crowd, unknown to him, and drop letters into his pocket, was clearly a dangerous customer, Larry reasoned. On Saturday night, as he left the train, he felt a suspicious tug at his coat pocket. He turned quickly, and caught a glimpse of a youth hurrying through the crowd. “If that wasn’t Peter Manton I’ll eat my hat,” thought Larry. He drew out the letter, which, in accordance with his expectations, he found. It read: _THIS IS THE LAST WARNING._ CHAPTER XXVI LARRY’S NARROW ESCAPE Somehow, instead of being frightened at receiving the ominous message thrust into his pocket in that mysterious manner, Larry felt a sense of relief. “Well, I’m glad they’re at the end of this warning business,” he remarked to himself. “It was getting annoying. I’d rather do some real fighting, than all this sparring in the dark. If they’re going to do something let ’em do it, and not be hinting at it all the time. The suspense is worse than anything else.” As Larry hurried toward his home he could not help feeling a little bit worried lest something had befallen Jimmy. The message seemed to indicate that the patience of the gang was exhausted, and that they would now proceed to act. Consequently Larry felt much relieved when he reached home, and found his brother and all the others safe. He was tired with his day’s work, and went to bed early. As next day was Sunday Larry decided he would take Jimmy for a trip to Central Park, to see the animals, and find some shady nook where he could take a rest, and make believe he was back in the country again. Larry thought that it might also serve a good purpose in foiling any ideas the gang might have of kidnapping Jimmy on that day. On Sundays the children generally went for a walk alone, and Larry was afraid that if they did so on this occasion, advantage might be taken of the chance.