*      *      *

“A black panther?” asked Andrew Braidwood, staring up at the trio who stood before his desk in the small police station in Patrick Street, Merridale.

“That is correct, constable,” assured Roberta Dempsey, throwing out her voluminous chest like an opera singer about to burst into song.   “It ran straight out in front of the car and just sat there…right in the middle of the road.”

Andrew looked slowly from the corpulent figure of Roberta Dempsey, to the diminutive figure of Garrick, who seemed almost dwarf-like beside the obesity of his wife, to the short, slender figure of young Stanlee.   Finally he said, “Are you absolutely sure that it wasn’t the black wolf?”

“Of course we’re sure!” insisted Roberta, sounding offended by the question.

“Maybe it was a kangaroo, or an emu?” suggested Sergeant Mel Forbes, standing near the desk before that the Dempseys were seated.

“No sir, it was definitely a black panther!” insisted Stanlee.   “It sat on the road till we were almost on top of it, then took off into the bush like as if it was jet-propelled.”

‘A jet-propelled panther?’ thought Andrew Braidwood, starting to make a record of the report in his notebook.

*      *      *

“A black panther yet!” said Andrew a few hours later as he and Mel stood by the side of the road, examining the skid marks made by the Dempsey’s car the night before.

“Well, what do you think it was?” asked Mel.   Twenty-odd years older than his constable, the police sergeant had lived long enough not to be automatically sceptical of unusual reports.

“Surely you don’t believe them?” asked Andrew, following the older man as he started toward the forest.

“Not necessarily,” agreed Mel, “but on the other hand, there have been reports of a large black cat around the LePage-Merridale area over the last two or three years.”   He stooped to examine a large paw print on the forest floor and asked, “What do you make of that?”

Andrew knelt to examine the print, and then looked ahead to where a trail of spoors continued into the forest.   “Dog prints,” he suggested.