How do Pelayo and Elisenda explain the old man's wings?

The two try to explain his wings away, guessing that he must be shipwrecked sailor, before fetching a neighbor woman who "knows everything about life and death." This neighbor woman declares that the old man is an angel who was likely coming for the soul of their sick child but foundered in the rainstorm. The neighbor woman advises that Pelayo and Elisenda club the old man to death, but they lack the heart to do it; instead they lock the old man with wings in the chicken coop.