‘Who’ll come with me to the shops?’ ‘Not me, thanks,’ they shouted back, or ‘Let’s wait until tomorrow.’ They were quite hardened to the horror of it all. Soon, however, his delirium ceased; all they could hear was the rasping sound of his laboured breathing. Later it quickened and then stopped. Zerbino and Páez leaped up and pushed against his chest to try and start it again. Páez continued this artificial respiration for half an hour, but it was clear to the rest of them after a few minutes that Rafael Echavarren was dead.
