diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 6b03f2a..940751d 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-1.5.298
+1.5.299
diff --git a/base/spice.c b/base/spice.c
index ff09d24..1b7a91c 100644
--- a/base/spice.c
+++ b/base/spice.c
@@ -532,6 +532,7 @@ void ReadSpiceFile(char *fname, int filenum, struct cellstack **CellStackPtr,
 
     SkipTok(NULL); /* get the next token */
     if ((EndParseFile()) && (nexttok == NULL)) break;
+    if (nexttok == NULL) break;
 
     if (nexttok[0] == '*') SkipNewLine(NULL);