"The Dead Man" (original Spanish title: "El Muerto") is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.
The story deals with the life of a young compadrito from Buenos Aires, Benjamín Otálora, who has killed a man and must leave the country.
The plan is the result of his desire to possess Bandeira's most important symbols of power: his horse, his saddle, and his woman with the bright red hair.
The end of the story occurs on New Year's Eve in 1894 when, after a day of feasting and drinking, at the stroke of Midnight, Bandeira summons his mistress and brutally forces her to kiss Otálora in front of all the men.
As Suárez aims his pistol, Otálora realizes before he dies that he had been set up from the very beginning and that he had been permitted the pleasure of power and triumph because in the end, to Bandeira, he never was anything more than a soon-to-be dead man.