McDowell said: "This is off the record until I find out what he's got to say. If it's O.K., you get it first hand, O.K.?"
The reporters nodded.
Doc cleared his throat. "The skin is human—so is the blood. Indications are the feathers were growing out of the skin, not merely inserted."
"You're certain?" gasped one reporter.
"I'm reasonably sure," qualified the doctor. "Skin ... well, skin has certain tests to prove it. This stuff is human skin, I'm certain. It couldn't be anything else. The feathers—I tried to classify them, but it will take a professional ornithologist to do that."
"But Doc," queried the reporter, "if that's human skin, how can feathers be growing out of it?"
"Ask me another," said the doctor, puzzled.
"Huh," grunted the reporter. "Man from—?" He shut his trap but quick, but the words carried enough connotation.
"Look," said McDowell, "you can use that Man from Mars gag if you want to, but don't say we said so. It's your own idea, see?"
"Right, lieutenant," they said, happy to get this much. It would make a bit of reading, this item.