Chapter 13
THE PURSUIT OF THE PRESIDENTNEXT morning five bewildered but hilarious people took the boat
for Dover. The poor old Colonel might have had some cause to
complain, having been first forced to fight for two factions that
didn't exist, and then knocked down with an iron lantern. But he
was a magnanimous old gentleman, and being much relieved that
neither party had anything to do with dynamite, he saw them off on
the pier with great geniality.
The five reconciled detectives had a hundred details to explain
to each other. The Secretary had to tell Syme how they had come to
wear masks originally in order to approach the supposed enemy as
fellow-conspirators.
Syme had to explain how they had fled with such swiftness
through a civilised country. But above all these matters
