On January 9, 1936 Howard received a letter from Fiction House with an apology for still holding on to the story:

Dear Mr. Howard:

I was surprised to learn upon receiving your letter this morning that I was still holding "Vulture's Sanctuary" which you sent in such a long time ago. I was under the impression that this story had been returned to you with explanations some time well before Christmas.

I held the story longer than usual because there was a possibility that I might be able to use it in one of our magazines on which we had planned a revival. This is a well told, well motivated yarn.

As it happened, however, Mr. Glenister decided to keep our revived titles on a tentative basis. We are putting them on the stands purely as a gamble to see how they will go, and the continuance of these depends upon the sale we achieve. In any event I don't believe that they will appear regularly again before the middle of the year.

Under the circumstances, with ACTION and LARIAT both bi-monthlies, our only regular publications, I am using very little material at this time. Hence the return of "Vulture's Sanctuary" with my apologies for the unusual delay of it.

Sincerly,
John F. Byrne
Editor