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did some more
thinking. I made no excuses for myself. I had jumped the
gun. My own negligence now contributed to our present
problems. I had always assured my salesmen that every
problem carried within it the solution if you could figure it
out. I did some figuring, myself, but I couldn't see any
acceptable solution. Maybe I had overlooked some important factor. Maybe the answer was staring me in the face.

    I looked up another attorney who had no connection with
Brooks or his office. To my dismay, he gave me the same
advice.
    "No one can force you to stay, Mr. Cameron," he said,
looking at me over the top of his bifocals after he had read
the lease thoughtfully. "But you'll have to pay if you leave.
Didn't you realize you'd be in a bind if your office transferred you to another city?"
    "I didn't think about it," I admitted shortly. "My mind
went on a vacation about that time." I hadn't gone into
details as to my reasons for wanting to terminate the lease
but had merely stated that private matters made it mandatory that I move.
    "Sorry," he announced regretfully. "The lease is airtight
and you signed it."
    I left his office a defeated man.
    That night I called yet another family conference. I included Carrol because, although barely ten, he knew what
was going on and had already been in on certain ghostly
visitations.
    The entire family listened attentively as I told about the
two unsuccessful visits of the morning -and what had motivated them.
    "So there you have it," I announced wearily. "It isn't that
we're scared -it's just that this is a darned nuisance and I
don't have time to cope with it. We're in trouble and what
are we going to do?"
    Bob looked gloomy as his imagination took over. "We're
all in a predicament," he said. "There goes Bob Cameron
whose father is being chased by ghosts!"
    "I seem to remember you boys running more than I did,"
I reminded him rather caustically.
    "Sure," he agreed. "But that won't be in the papers."
    "It will if this comes to court. You'll all be witnesseseven Carrol."

    Hal was less voluble than Bob but what he said usually
made sense. Now he spoke thoughtfully, his hazel eyes narrowed in concentration.
    "Dad, none of us have been hurt-physically hurt-by
these things. Maybe we can find out something about psychic
phenomena and learn how to cope. I know there is such a
thing even though none of us have been exposed to it before.
Maybe we can learn about these things. Maybe we should
learn about them. In the meantime, as I said, we haven't
been hurt("
    "Only our feelings," Dorothy put in, sotto voce.
    I agreed with her. Then I went on soberly. "Hal, you're
right on both issues. To date these things have been-as I
said before-only a nuisance. And we should learn more
about this area."
    "I don't think we're going to be hurt in the future,
either," Bob put in. He had gotten to his feet and was restlessly pacing around the room. "Seems to be a directing
intelligence of some kind at work here. Someone is trying
to scare us out. That odor in the bedroom, Dad. The rest
of us haven't noticed that. So it's you and Mom that are
being worked on now because if you leave, the rest of us
go, too. Then the house would be theirs again."
    Dorothy, who had been listening thoughtfully, now spoke
up. "I was worried and a little frightened," she admitted.
"I pushed you into trying to get out of the lease. Now I'm
beginning to get my dander up! I find I can take a lot of
annoyance for seventy-two hundred dollars, plus the cost
of moving and the effort of trying to find another place.
Besides, we've worked hard on this house and should eventually have the opportunity to enjoy it!"
    I could have cheered but I spoke quietly. "Well, we've
all got to agree. Frankly, I can't afford to lose the money
right now and I couldn't take the publicity of a court action for obvious reasons. But you're all members of this family
and you each have a vote. We're in this