George O. Smith

“ The skin is human—or as one dermatologist put it, is as human as possible considering that it is growing feathers instead of hair. The blood is the same story."
Doc nodded. "Now what?" he repeated, though the sense of his words was different.
"We wait. Boy, there's a big scareline in all the papers. The Press is hinting that the guy is from outer space, having been told that there were intelligent humans here by that series of atom bomb explosions."
"If we were really intelligent, we could get along with one another without atom bombs," grunted the Doc. ”

“ People who think they've seen him; people who are sure they've had him in for lunch, almost. Yet they missed calling about a character growing feathers instead of hair until there's a big fuss—just as though a guy with a head covered with feathers was quite the ordinary thing until he takes a swing at a guy in a saloon. ”

“ 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." ”

“ I would say, however, that the animal from which this came is not known in any regular part of the civilized world."
"Explain that, Professor Meredith," requested McDowell.
"It is a small feather—fully grown. It is in an advanced stage of evolution. Feathers, you know, evolved from scales and we can tell how far they have come. It must come from a small bird, which is also evidenced by the fact that it is not known to man. There are places in the backwaters of the Amazon where man has not been, and certain spots in Africa and the part of the world near Malaya. ”

“ The ultraconservative Events even goes so far as to question the possibility of a feather-bearing man growing to full manhood without having some record of it. Based on that premise, they build an outer space yarn about it, too. ”

“ It was a bit of skin, to which was attached three tiny feathers. "Just before he bopped me I got me hands in his scalp to see if they wuz real. They wuz, because they came hard and he howled and went madman."
McDowell handed the specimen to Doc. "Examine it, Doc. One, are they real feathers? Two, is that real human skin, and three, is that human blood?" ”