The Mayor's Black Panther

I gave both the clerk and the guide my business card and asked about business at Bienville Plantation. I had heard that it was not making as much money as it needed. The fishing guide answered, "It's doing fantastic! They just thought they would make about $40 million their first year, that's all. This is their second year, and they've already done 127% of what they did last year. They're doing so good they're thinking about hiring another forty guides."
"What do you get - fifty percent and all the tip?" I asked.
"I get $125 a day. Sometimes, I get more than that in tips. I make about $200 to $300 a day, but that's before taxes."
"My son would love to be a guide there. At that money, I'd love to be a guide there!"
"All he needs is a eighteen foot boat."
"We have a seventeen foot Bass Tracker."
"That'd be okay."
Toward the end of April, I went to the barbershop for my semi-annual shearing. The barber had been the mayor of Alachua City, and I asked him if he had ever seen a black panther. "I've seen them," he replied, and this is his story: "The last one I saw was in 1961. My father had 1,900 acres leased on the Suwannee River, and we had cattle in there. We rounded up all the cattle but this one cow. She was very wild and would not let us get sight of her. She went into the thick part of the land which extended five miles. We built a trap in there to catch her. Daddy thought maybe she had a calf. We put corn in the trap. A buddy and I went to check on the trap. The cow wasn't in it. There was a slough caused by a small spring at the head, and we decided to fish there a while. We were sitting there, and suddenly my buddy hit my shoulder and said, "Look!" A black panther was crossing a log across the head of the slough. He looked right at us. He had a white patch on the right side of his face from his nose to under his right eye. We got out of there as fast as possible. We had no guns." From the online book, "The Black Panther Betrayal" by Peter "Two Guns" Nickerson, MS, MSW. Please report any black panther, Bigfoot,or Swamp Ape sightings to me at peternickerson12@yahoo.com or 352-359-0851. Thank you.