diff --git a/lib/wire/messagestream.js b/lib/wire/messagestream.js
index 66e6cf37..956f0fa9 100644
--- a/lib/wire/messagestream.js
+++ b/lib/wire/messagestream.js
@@ -17,20 +17,18 @@ DelimitedStream.prototype._transform = function(chunk, encoding, done) {
   while (this._buffer.length) {
     if (this._readingLength) {
       var byte = this._buffer[0]
+      this._length += (byte & 0x7f) << (7 * this._lengthIndex)
       if (byte & (1 << 7)) {
-        this._length += (byte & 0x7f) << (7 * this._lengthIndex)
         this._lengthIndex += 1
         this._readingLength = true
       }
       else {
-        this._length += (byte & 0x7f) << (7 * this._lengthIndex)
         this._lengthIndex = 0
         this._readingLength = false
       }
       this._buffer = this._buffer.slice(1)
     }
-
-    if (!this._readingLength) {
+    else {
       if (this._length <= this._buffer.length) {
         this.push(this._buffer.slice(0, this._length))
         this._buffer = this._buffer.slice(this._length)