The Twins of Table Mountain | Page 3

you, and you may have other legal rights.\

\f0\b INDEMNITY
\f1\b0 \
You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.\

\f0\b DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
\f1\b0 \
You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this "Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, or:\
[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as *EITHER*:\
[*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and does *not* contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR\
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR\
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).\
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement.\
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the gross profits you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to let us know your plans and to work out the details.\

\f0\b WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
\f1\b0 \
The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, public domain etexts, and royalty free copyright licenses. If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: [email protected]\
*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.07.00*END*\
\pard\pardeftab720\sa140\ql\qnatural
\cf0 \
\pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural
\cf0 *END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*\
\
This etext was prepared by Donald Lainson, [email protected].\
\
The Twins of Table Mountain\
by Bret Harte\
\pard\pardeftab720\sa140\ql\qnatural
\cf0 \
\pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural
\cf0 CONTENTS\
I. THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN\
II. AN HEIRESS OF RED DOG\
III. THE GREAT DEADWOOD MYSTERY\
IV. A LEGEND OF SAMMTSTADT\
V. VIEWS FROM A GERMAN SPION\
\pard\pardeftab720\sa140\ql\qnatural
\cf0 \
\pard\pardeftab720\ql\qnatural
\cf0 THE TWINS OF TABLE MOUNTAIN.\
\
\pard\pardeftab720\sa340\ql\qnatural

\f0\b\fs35 \cf0 CHAPTER I.\
\pard\pardeftab720\sa300\ql\qnatural

\f1\b0\fs30 \cf0 A CLOUD ON THE MOUNTAIN.\
They lived on the verge of a vast stony level, upheaved so far above the surrounding country that its vague outlines, viewed from the nearest valley, seemed a mere cloud-streak resting upon the lesser hills. The rush and roar of the turbulent river that washed its eastern base were lost at that height; the winds that strove with the giant pines that half way climbed its flanks spent their fury below the summit; for, at variance with most meteorological speculation, an eternal calm seemed to invest this serene altitude. The few Alpine flowers seldom thrilled their petals to a passing breeze; rain and snow fell alike perpendicularly, heavily, and monotonously over the granite bowlders scattered along its brown expanse. Although by actual measurement an inconsiderable elevation of the Sierran range, and a mere shoulder of the nearest white-faced peak that glimmered in the west, it seemed to lie so near the quiet, passionless stars, that at night it caught something of their calm remoteness.\
The articulate utterance of such a locality should have been a whisper; a laugh or exclamation was discordant; and the ordinary tones of the human voice on the night of the 15th of May, 1868, had a grotesque incongruity.\
In the thick darkness that clothed the mountain that night, the human figure would have been lost, or confounded with the outlines of outlying bowlders, which at such times took upon themselves the vague semblance of men and animals. Hence the voices in the following colloquy seemed the more grotesque and incongruous from being the apparent expression of an upright monolith, ten feet high, on the right, and another mass of granite, that, reclining, peeped over the verge.\
"Hello!"\
"Hello yourself!"\
"You're late."\
"I lost the trail, and climbed up the slide."\
Here followed a stumble, the clatter of stones down the mountain- side, and an oath