diff -urN findutils-4.1-orig/locate/locate.c findutils-4.1/locate/locate.c
--- findutils-4.1-orig/locate/locate.c	Mon Sep 26 23:06:14 1994
+++ findutils-4.1/locate/locate.c	Fri May 10 01:40:45 2002
@@ -100,10 +100,14 @@
 get_short (fp)
      FILE *fp;
 {
-  register short x;
+  register short x1, x2;
 
-  x = fgetc (fp);
-  return (x << 8) | (fgetc (fp) & 0xff);
+  x1 = fgetc (fp);
+  x2 = fgetc (fp);
+  if (x1 < 128)
+    return (x1 << 8) | (x2 & 0xff);
+  else
+    return -65536 + (x1 << 8) | (x2 & 0xff);
 }
 
 /* Return a pointer to the last character in a static copy of the last