You'll have to get permission from him.' 'But it's like a prison!' exclaimed Mr.Bamberger.
'Yes, sir,' answered the old soldier imperturbably.

'It's just like a prison.

It's meant to be.' It was evidently impossible to get anything more out of the man, who did not pay the slightest attention to the cheerful little noise Mr.
Bamberger made by jingling sovereigns in his waistcoat pocket; there was nothing to do but to go away, and Mr.Bamberger went out very much annoyed and perplexed.
He knew Van Torp well, or believed that he did, and it was like the man whose genius had created the Nickel Trust to have boldly sequestrated his enemy's chief instrument, and in such a clever way as to make it probable that Mr.Feist might be kept in confinement as long as his captor chose.

Doubtless such a high-handed act would ultimately go against the latter when on his trial, but in the meantime the chief witness was locked up and could not get out.

Sir Jasper Threlfall would state that his patient was in such a state of health, owing to the abuse of alcohol, that it was not safe to set him at liberty, and that in his present condition his mind was so unsettled by drink that he could not be regarded as a sane witness; and if Sir Jasper Threlfall said that, it would not be easy to get Charles Feist out of Dr.Bream's establishment in less than three months.
Mr.Bamberger was obliged to admit that his partner, chief, and enemy had stolen a clever march on him.