diff -urN src.orig/expand.c src/expand.c
--- src.orig/expand.c	Wed Dec 20 11:46:04 2006
+++ src/expand.c	Tue Jan  2 15:18:27 2007
@@ -1986,7 +1986,7 @@
     conditions that compare numbers do not start with a letter. This just saves
     checking for them individually. */
 
-    if (!isalpha(name[0]))
+    if (!isalpha(name[0]) && yield)
       {
       num[i] = expand_string_integer(sub[i], FALSE);
       if (expand_string_message != NULL) return NULL;