diff --git a/auxdir/x_ac_federation.m4 b/auxdir/x_ac_federation.m4
index 0608268d41ce95cf5eb108d584c2541163e5920f..c822273cbcf148f1deb17ea58c4bf37aa6194265 100644
--- a/auxdir/x_ac_federation.m4
+++ b/auxdir/x_ac_federation.m4
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ AC_DEFUN([X_AC_FEDERATION],
 [
    ntbl_default_dirs="/usr/lib"
    for ntbl_dir in $ntbl_default_dirs; do
-      echo "checking for libntbl.a in $ntbl_dir... \c"
+      echo "checking for libntbl.a in $ntbl_dir... "
 
       # skip dirs that don't exist
       if test ! -z "$ntbl_dir" -a ! -d "$ntbl_dir" ; then