The storm grew louder.  “This is preposterous!” exclaimed my uncle Timothy at my side.  And the Reverend Lettuce-Spray managed to find his voice.  “Sir, whoever you are, leave this church!”

Carpenter turned upon him.  “You give orders to me—­you who have brought back the moneychangers into my Father’s temple?” And suddenly he faced the congregation, crying in a voice of wrath:  “Algernon de Wiggs!  Stand up!”

Strange as it may seem, the banker rose in his pew; whether under the spell of Carpenter’s majestic presence, or preparing to rush at him and throw him out, I could not be sure.  The great banker’s face was vivid scarlet.

And Carpenter pointed to another part of the congregation.  “Peter Dexter!  Stand up!” The president of the Dexter Trust Company also arose, trembling as if with palsy, mumbling something, one could not tell whether protest or apology.

“Stuyvesant Gunning!  Stand up!” And the president of the Fidelity National obeyed.  Apparently Carpenter proposed to call the whole roll of financial directors; but the procedure was halted suddenly, as a tall, white-robed figure strode from its seat near the choir.  Young Sidney Simpkinson, assistant to the rector, went up to Carpenter and took him by the arm.

“Leave this house of God,” he commanded.

The other faced him.  “It is written, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.”

Young Simpkinson wasted no further words in parley.  He was an advocate of what is known as “muscular Christianity,” and kept himself in trim playing on the parish basket-ball team.  He flung his strong arms about Carpenter, and half carrying him, half walking him, took him down the steps and down the aisle.  As he went, Carpenter was proclaiming:  “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.  He that steals little is called a pickpocket, but he that steals much is called a pillar of the church.  Verily, he that deprives the laborer of the fruit of his toil is more dangerous than he that robs upon the highway; and he that steals the state and the powers of government is the father of all thieves.”

By that time, the prophet had been hustled two-thirds down the aisle; and then came a new development.  Unobserved by anyone, a number of Carpenter’s followers had come with him into the church; and these, seeing the way he was being handled, set up a cry:  “For shame!  For shame!” I saw Everett, secretary to T-S, and Korwsky, secretary of the tailor’s union; I saw some one leap at Everett and strike him a ferocious blow in the teeth, and two other men leap upon the little Russian and hurl him to the ground.