 How does the "Old Serpent" know that the crew is returning with settlers?
EVERYTHING IT HAD WAS IN THE GARDEN BY R. A. LAFFERTY [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, March 1961. Not only would there be life traces on that little moon, but it would be a lively place. But they were disappointed that they found nothing for several hours as they hovered high over the rotation. As though there were but one city, if that is its form. It'll be twelve hours before it's back in our ken if we let it go now." There was one more test to run, one very tricky and difficult of analysis, that with the Extraordinary Perception Locator. But this might be so varied or so unfamiliar that often both the machine and the designer of it were puzzled as to how to read the results. It was for this reason that Glaser used that model no more, but built others more amenable. And it was for this reason also that the owners of Little Probe had acquired the original machine so cheaply. On Earth it had read Positive on a number of crack-pots, including Waxey Sax, a jazz tootler who could not even read music. But it had also read Positive on ninety per cent of the acknowledged superior minds of the Earth. In space it had been a sound guide to the unusual intelligences encountered. Yet on Suzuki-Mi it had read Positive on a two-inch-long worm, only one of them out of billions. So among the intelligences there was at least one that might be extraordinary, though possibly in a crackpot way. If you find no other spot then we will go down on that one the next time it is in position under us, in about twelve hours." If we find no others then we will go down boldly and visit this." So they all, except Steiner, went off to their bunks then: Stark, the Captain; Gregory Gilbert, the executive officer; Wolfgang Langweilig, the engineer; Casper Craig, super-cargo, tycoon and 51% owner of the Little Probe, and F. R. Briton, S.J., a Jesuit priest who was linguist and checker champion of the craft. The Little Probe hovered stationary in the light and the moon-town came up under the dawn. And those two ... why, they could well be Earth-people. We'll go to meet them at once. There was a man and a woman, and they were clothed either in very bright garments or in no garments at all, but only in a very bright light.
 It has happened before. He knows that people cannot resist the temptation and takes advantage of it.
 He understands people, and that they'll want to have their way with the planet.  Like Adam, he has extraordinary perception and can predict it happening.  It has happened before. He knows that people cannot resist the temptation and takes advantage of it.  The crew made it clear they would return.