This he did.

I thereupon withdrew it from publication at once, and am not including it in this subscription edition.

I think it better dead.

But the writing of it taught me better how to write The Trail of the Sword; though, if I had to do this book again, I could construct it better.
I think it fresh and very vigorous, and I think it does not lack distinction, while a real air of romance--of refined romance--pervades it.

But I know that Mr.W.E.Henley was right when, after most generously helping me to revise it, with a true literary touch wonderfully intimate and affectionate, he said to me: "It is just not quite big, but the next one will get home." He was right.