This is very strange. In Chrome one can only Save a text file and not view it. Even Chrome admits that it is not possible andthat  they are working on it.I have researched the problem and at the moment there is no solution to it. You wil find post after post dealing with this problem. There is no plug-in available either.

 

Since I downloaded the latest version of Chrome I don't see how it is possible for you to see a text file without downloading it. There is only this one possibility available when you click on a Readme file. At the moment only pdf is supported (according to Chrome).