In August 1949, Dell Paperback published a version with a map captioned "Wild Island Home of Nadara the Cave Girl Where Violence and Bloodshed Rule.

"[1] Blueblooded mama's boy Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones is swept overboard during a South Seas voyage for his lifelong ill health.

He is terrified when he encounters primitive, violent men, ape-like throwbacks in mankind's evolutionary history.

As his jungle adventures continue, he finds that he is growing more healthy due to the constant physical demands of primitive living.

A modern ship stops at the island, but Waldo surprises himself by deciding to stay until he can ensure Nadara's safety.

He finds the tribe's new home, and her father charges Waldo to give her a packet of her deceased mother's things.

The ship's search party finds the packet that Nadara carelessly discarded, and discovers that the contents identify a married noble couple from modern society, who disappeared on a voyage less than 20 years previously.

On his deathbed, her father explains her mother was actually a woman who arrived in a small boat with a dead man; she died right after giving birth to Nadara.

Waldo decides that living with Nadara under primitive moral customs would be wrong, and determines not to take her as his wife until they can return to civilization.

Back in the States, Waldo's parents decide to send another search mission after they receive his letter.

When Stark, the first officer, grabs Nadara on the deck late at night, he kidnaps her overboard to a nearby shore.

One of the pirates tells of a white goddess at a cannibal temple inland, so Waldo goes to search for Nadara.

Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction in 1963 described The Cave Girl as "a typical Burroughs adventure yarn" and among the rarest of his books before it was reprinted.