It was not until long after the guards to whom he was chained had fallen asleep that Malchus followed their example.

It seemed to him he had been asleep a long time when a pressure by a hand on his shoulder woke him; at the same moment another hand was placed over his mouth.
"Hush, my lord!" a voice said.

It was Nessus.

"Arise and let us go.
There is no time to be lost, for it is nigh morning.

I have been the whole night in discovering where you were." "But the guards, Nessus ?" "I have killed them," Nessus said in a tone of indifference.
"But I am chained to them by the ankles." Nessus gave a little exclamation of impatience, and then in the darkness felt the irons to discover the nature of the fastenings.