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    THE ROAD-BUILDERS

    [Illustration: The M M Co]

    [Illustration: "'there,' he cried,... 'there, boys! that means
    red hills or bust.'" _Frontispiece_]




    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.