diff --git a/LOG b/LOG
index 19111aed18..4da697e9ce 100644
--- a/LOG
+++ b/LOG
@@ -1759,3 +1759,5 @@
 - used with-object-file to restore accidentally dropped close-port in
   compile-whole-program and compile-whole-library
     compile.ss
+- initialized variable to enable compilation with 9.1.0 at -O3
+    c/scheme.c
diff --git a/c/scheme.c b/c/scheme.c
index cc9e5a65aa..a21074c7df 100644
--- a/c/scheme.c
+++ b/c/scheme.c
@@ -572,7 +572,8 @@ static void check_boot_file_state PROTO((const char *who));
 
 static IBOOL find_boot(name, ext, fd, errorp) const char *name, *ext; int fd; IBOOL errorp; {
   char pathbuf[PATH_MAX], buf[PATH_MAX];
-  uptr n; INT c;
+  uptr n = 0;
+  INT c;
   const char *path;
 #ifdef WIN32
   wchar_t *expandedpath;