As they descended into the lobby Hal suddenly touched Noll's arm and stood still.
"I guess Tip is going to stay right with us," whispered Overton in his chum's ear. "That's Tip's mother over there in the chair. She and her son must be stopping at this hotel."
"They surely are," nodded Noll, "for there's Tip himself just coming in."
Neither mother nor son noted the presence of the chums near by.
Tip hurried up to his mother, a grin on his not very handsome face.
"Well, old lady," was that son's greeting, "I've gone and done it."
"You don't mean that you've gotten into any trouble, do you, Tip?" asked his mother apprehensively.
"Trouble—nothing!" retorted Tip eloquently. "Naw! I've been around to the rookie shed and got passed as a soldier in the Regular Army."
"What?" gasped his mother paling.
"Now, that ain't nothing so fierce," almost growled Tip. "But there is a fool rule—me being under twenty-one—that you've got to go and give your consent. So that's the cloth that's cut for you this afternoon, old lady."