He was looking at Elmer, who was three inches taller than any one else in the assembly. “Some of these fellows tried to stop a peaceable religious assembly—why, they tried to rough-house the Reverend here—and I was protecting him,” Elmer said. “That’s right, Chief. Reg’lar outrage,” complained Jim. “That’s true, Chief,” whistled Eddie Fislinger from his box. “Well, you fellows cut it out now. What the hell! Ought to be ashamed yourselves, bullyragging a Reverend! Go ahead, Reverend!” The baker had come to, and had been lifted to his feet. His expression indicated that he had been wronged and that he wanted to do something about it, if he could only find out what had happened. His eyes were wild, his hair was a muddy chaos, and his flat floury cheek was cut. He was too dizzy to realize that the chief of police was before him, and his fuming mind stuck to the belief that he was destroying all religion. “Yah, so you’re one of them wishy-washy preachers, too!” he screamed at Elmer—just as one of the lanky policemen reached out an arm of incredible length and nipped him. The attention of the crowd warmed Elmer, and he expanded in it, rubbed his mental hands in its blaze. “Maybe I ain’t a preacher! Maybe I’m not even a good Christian!” he cried. “Maybe I’ve done a whole lot of things I hadn’t ought to of done. But let me tell you, I respect religion—” “Oh, amen, praise the Lord, brother,” from Eddie Fislinger. “—and I don’t propose to let anybody interfere with it. What else have we got except religion to give us hope—” “Praise the Lord, oh, bless his name!” “—of _ever_ leading decent lives, tell me that, will you, just tell me that!” Elmer was addressing the chief of police, who admitted: “Yuh, I guess that’s right. Well now, we’ll let the meeting go on, and if any more of you fellows interrupt—” This completed the chief’s present ideas on religion and mob-violence. He looked sternly at everybody within reach, and stalked through the crowd, to return to the police station and resume his game of seven-up. Eddie was soaring into enchanted eloquence: “Oh, my brethren, now you see the power of the spirit of Christ to stir up all that is noblest and best in us! You have heard the testimony of our brother here, Brother Gantry, to the one and only way to righteousness! When you get home I want each and every one of you to dig out the Old Book and turn to the Song of Solomon, where it tells about the love of the Savior for the Church—turn to the Song of Solomon, the fourth chapter and the tenth verse, where it says—where Christ is talking about the church, and he says—Song of Solomon, the fourth chapter and the tenth verse—‘How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine!’