'Tarzan the Terrible' Summary

Two months have passed since the conclusion of the previous novel Tarzan the Untamed in which Tarzan spent many months wandering about Africa wreaking vengeance upon those who he believed brutally murdered Jane. At the end of that novel, Tarzan learns that her death was a ruse that she had not been killed at all.

In attempting to track Jane, Tarzan has come to a hidden valley called Pal-ul-don filled with dinosaurs, notably the savage Gryfs which are Triceratops that are omnivorous and stand 20 feet tall at the shoulder, have claws on their front legs, and Stegosaurus-like plates on its back. The lost valley is also home to two different adversarial races of tailed human-looking creatures: the hairless and white-skinned, city-dwelling Ho-don and the hairy and black-skinned, hill-dwelling Waz-don. Tarzan befriends a Ho-don warrior and the Waz-don chief actuating some uncustomary relations. In this new world, Tarzan becomes a captive where he impresses his captors with his accomplishments and skills that they name him "Tarzan-Jad-Guru" (Tarzan the Terrible).

Having been brought there by her German captor, it turns out Jane is also being held captive in Pal-ul-don. She becomes a center-piece in a religious power struggle that consumes much of the novel until she escapes after which her German captor becomes dependent on her due to his own lack of jungle survival skills.

With the aid of his native allies, Tarzan continues to pursue his beloved, going through an extended series of fights and escapes to do so. In the end, success seems beyond even his ability to achieve until in the final chapter he and Jane are saved by their son Korak, who has been searching for Tarzan just as Tarzan has been searching for Jane.