1. MASKED MURDERERS — THE BLACK PANTHER SERIES

Leon had to learn early to throw a bag of mealies over his shoulder and walk away with it. He was barely fourteen years old when he so skillfully handled a bow and arrow that any Bushman's mouth would have watered. Because he was the only son and child of his parents, he found his amusement in the field, where he hunted jackals and stuck leopards under the arrow. His hands learned early to twist a young ox's horns so that the animal fell powerless to the ground.

Leon's mother died early, just before the First War of Freedom, when the Basothos attacked a few remote farms. From then on, Leon's father became an adventurer. Together, they moved into the unknown, always deeper into the unknown Transvaal. And Lettie? Leon and she grew up together. Both her parents were killed by the Basothos and Leon's father then took care of her. Lettie with her soft, wavy, blonde hair and blue eyes, blue as the cloudless sky of the Lowveld. And now she is already a sixteen-year-old boer girl.

One night, a couple of cattle thieves steal all of Leon's cattle, kill his father and kidnap Lettie in the process. Leon swears revenge on the murderers and cattle thieves. With a leopard, he had to kill for survival, he then made a mask out of it, and thus the legend of the Black Panther was born. The appearance of the Panther man scares anyone who sees it, and Leon uses it very skillfully to instill fear and authority among the thieves. But it was by no means easy, and Leon had to endure certain hardships to ensure that justice was done.

Braam le Roux

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