It seems the variable rewriting is a bit overly ambitious sometimes; is the following an already known misfeature?
Pike v7.3 release 62 running Hilfe v3.5 (Incremental Pike Frontend)
class Spill{string leak;void create(){leak="Ouch!";}} leak;
Compiler Error: 1:'leak' undefined.
object hm=Spill(); leak;
(1) Result: "Ouch!"