diff --git a/src/eval.c b/src/eval.c
index 8474956..d93836a 100644
--- a/src/eval.c
+++ b/src/eval.c
@@ -19589,9 +19589,14 @@
 	 * worked find the variable again.  Don't auto-load a script if it was
 	 * loaded already, otherwise it would be loaded every time when
 	 * checking if a function name is a Funcref variable. */
-	if (ht == &globvarht && !writing
-			    && script_autoload(varname, FALSE) && !aborting())
+	if (ht == &globvarht && !writing)
+	{
+	    /* Note: script_autoload() may make "hi" invalid. It must either
+	     * be obtained again or not used. */
+	    if (!script_autoload(varname, FALSE) || aborting())
+		return NULL;
 	    hi = hash_find(ht, varname);
+	}
 	if (HASHITEM_EMPTY(hi))
 	    return NULL;
     }