Chapter I: Front Matter

THE ROAD-BUILDERS

The Road-Builders

BY

SAMUEL MERWIN

AUTHOR OF “THE MERRY ANNE,” JOINT AUTHOR OF
“CALUMET ‘K,’” “THE SHORT LINE WAR,” ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
F. B. MASTERS

TORONTO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
1910

COPYRIGHT, 1905,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published October, 1905. Reprinted
April, 1906.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

_TO MY LITTLE SON_

NOTE

A part of this story was printed serially in _The Saturday Evening Post_ under the title, “A Link in the Girdle.”

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. YOUNG VAN ENGAGES A COOK 1
II. WHERE THE MONEY CAME FROM 22
III. AT MR. CARHART’S CAMP 37
IV. JACK FLAGG SEES STARS 66
V. WHAT THEY FOUND AT THE WATER-HOLE 97
VI. THE ROAD TO TOTAL WRECK 138
VII. THE SPIRIT OF THE JOB 185
VIII. SHOTS--AND A SCOUTING PARTY 219
IX. A SHOW-DOWN 246
X. WHAT TOOK PLACE AT RED HILLS 293

ILLUSTRATIONS

“‘There,’ he cried, ... ‘there, boys! That means Red Hills
or bust’” _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

“‘It’s all I have a right to give anybody’” 74

“‘Eighty cents,’ he muttered, ‘and for how much work?’” 80

“‘Well,’ began the boss, looking him over, ‘what kind of a
cook are you?’” 98

“Wonderfully they held the pace” 114

“They went on in this way for nearly an hour” 120

“‘Look here, Tiffany,’ Carhart began, ‘something’s going to
happen to this man Peet’” 142

“‘You go back to your quarters’” 208

“... this trestle structure which was slowly crawling, like
some monster centipede, across the sands of the La Paz” 240

“The cigarette dropped from Antonio’s unnerved fingers” 244

“Charlie had not raised his revolver,--the muzzle still
rested easily on the sill,--but it was pointing straight
at Jack Flagg’s heart” 310

THE ROAD-BUILDERS