Horse Thief

First Published: August 1986 by Fantagraphics Books

• Miyamoto Usagi

Usagi is witness to a bandit raid on a travelling group. Usagi rushes to the rescue, but is too late to do anything more than earn the enmity of the bandits, slaying several of them.

He decides to take the horse of a slain bandit to sell in the next town he comes across. After finding such a town, Usagi finds a restaurant to fill his grumbling belly and as he does so overhears the town magistrate complaining about the need for a horse. Usagi offers to sell him cheaply and shows him the steed.

All seems well and good until the magistrate claims that the horse was originally his and was stolen by bandits. He accuses Usagi and calls for the police. Usagi meanwhile makes his getaway. He is pursued by the town's constabulary however, and makes for forested mountain trails seeking to lose them.

He comes across a horse trader's shack with many other horses milling about outside and decides to sell the beast here instead. Upon entering however, he sees it is the abode of the bandits whose fellows he slew earlier. They attack him just as the magistrate and police from the town arrive. In the ensuing battle, Usagi manages to slip away while both parties fight each other to get to him, and he makes his getaway on the unlucky steed.

Happening upon a woodcutter and his wife with a large cart, he tells them to get out of his way. They explain that they have mad difficulties ever since the town magistrate confiscated their horse. Finding this uproarious, Usagi dismounts and strides away.

Last change: 19. May 2003

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Usagi Yojimbo, including all prominent characters featured in the stories and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Stan Sakai and Usagi Studios. Usagi Yojimbo is a registered trademark of Stan Sakai. Names, characters, places, and incidents featured in this publication either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events, institutions, or locales, without satiric content, is coincidental.