that record and have you sign it,"
Mel said. He explained about the interest of Dr. Winters in her case
without revealing the actual circumstances.

"Glad to," said Dr. Brown. "I just wish things hadn't turned out the way
they have. One of the loveliest girls that ever grew up here, Alice."

* * *

The special memorial service was held in the old community church on
Sunday afternoon. It was like the drawing of a curtain across a portion
of Mel's life, and he knew that curtain would never open again.

He took a bus leaving town soon after the service.

There was one final bit of evidence, and he wondered all the way back to
town why he had not thought of it first. Alice's pregnancy had ended in
miscarriage, and there had never been another.

But X-rays had been taken to try to find the cause of Alice's
difficulty. If they showed that Alice was normal within the past two
years--

* * * * *

Dr. Winters was mildly surprised to see Mel again. He invited the
reporter in to his office and offered him a chair. "I suppose you have
come to inquire about our findings regarding your wife."

"Yes--if you've found anything," said Mel. "I've got a couple of things
to show you."

"We've found little more than we knew the night of her death. We have
completed the dissection of the body. A minute analysis of each organ is
now under way, and chemical tests of the body's substances are being
made. We found that differences in the skeletal structure were almost as
great as those in the fleshy tissues. We find no relationship between
these structures and those of any other species--human or animal--that
we have ever found."

"And yet Alice was not always like that," said Mel.

Dr. Winters looked at him sharply. "How do you know that?"

Mel extended the medical records he had obtained in Central Valley. Dr.
Winters picked them up and examined them for a long time while Mel
watched silently.

Finally, Dr. Winters put the records down with a sigh. "This seems to
make the problem even more complex than it was."

"There are X-rays, too," said Mel. "Alice had pelvic X-rays only a
little over two years ago. I tried to get them, but the doctor said
you'd have to request them. They should be absolute proof that Alice was
different then."

"Tell me who has them and I'll send for them at once."

An hour later Dr. Winters shook his head in disbelief as he turned off
the light box