{"id":12795,"date":"2016-04-05T14:12:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T18:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=12795"},"modified":"2025-02-18T19:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T00:10:20","slug":"the-intruder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=12795","title":{"rendered":"The Intruder (by Arien)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 <\/strong>An intruder finds his way to the Ponderosa.<\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0 K\u00a0 (570 words)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Intruder<\/strong><\/p>\n

The figure stepped carefully through the open doorway. This was going to be easier than he’d originally thought. Moving carefully, he eased past the clock and froze at the squeaking floorboard beneath his foot.<\/p>\n

He looked around, trying to see if anyone had heard the sound but, with a sigh of relief, he was left alone to continue his trek through the seemingly empty house.<\/p>\n

A fire burned brightly in the stone hearth and shadows danced across the room. The smell of roast beef and potatoes assaulted his nose, and he looked to his left to find the table laden with food, but no one was there to enjoy it. Smiling to himself, he was reminded of a childhood tale about three bears and young blonde girl. He had a feeling the third plate he tried would be “just right”, to quote the story.<\/p>\n

The sound of scurrying feet overhead caused him to freeze in place, eyes darting about for a hiding place. Spying the desk in the corner, he moved quickly and barely got into place before three sets of heavy footsteps descended the stairs.<\/p>\n

“I think it would be best if you stayed here while Hoss and I went to look for him. It’s not like him to be this late. Anything could have happened on his way back from town,” the oldest of the three said. “Who left the door open?”<\/p>\n

Easing around the side of the desk, the intruder could see the tallest of the three scratch his head. “I dunno, I thought I’d closed it but guess I coulda forgotten when I was bringing in that stuff for Pa.”<\/p>\n

“I guess it doesn’t make much difference now,” the oldest said as he strapped on his gun belt, throwing on his coat and hat. “We’ll be back in a little while. Send word for us if he shows up.”<\/p>\n

The youngest nodded his head, moving towards the fireplace, settled the settee in front of the massive fireplace. He picked up a nearby book and began flipping through the pages as the other two men left.<\/p>\n

The room became quiet once again, and the intruder sat, hunched, behind the massive desk. Time moved slowly. How long he crouched there, he wasn\u2019t sure. It could have been hours for all he knew, and he was trapped.<\/p>\n

After a while, the young man\u2019s head began to gently nod forward. The intruder saw his chance at long last. Easing from behind the desk, took a tentative step forward and kept an eye on the figure ahead. Good, he thought to himself when the figure didn\u2019t move. Another few steps had him right behind the settee, and the young man wasn\u2019t even aware of the danger he was in.<\/p>\n

Raising his hands in preparation to pounce, he stopped in his tracks when a voice spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cPa, I know it\u2019s you,\u201d Joe said, not looking up from the book he held.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019d you know it was me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do you think I learned the fine art of sneaking from?\u201d Joe asked, not looking up from his book.<\/p>\n

Ben stood there for a moment, unsure of what to say. After eyeing the back of Joe\u2019s head, he said, \u201cYou\u2019d better not breathe a word of this to your brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I wouldn\u2019t dream of it. You can tell them yourself since they just rode up.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Adam Cartwright,\u00a0Ben Cartwright,\u00a0Hoss Cartwright,\u00a0Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 An intruder finds his way to the Ponderosa.<\/p>\n

Rating:\u00a0 K\u00a0 (570 words)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9526,"featured_media":4115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","wpcat-4-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/frontporch.jpg?fit=439%2C305&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}