diff --git a/manifest_xml.py b/manifest_xml.py
index 8b57bf52..cfbd9efa 100644
--- a/manifest_xml.py
+++ b/manifest_xml.py
@@ -90,7 +90,8 @@ class _XmlRemote(object):
     # and then replacing it with the original when we are done.
 
     if manifestUrl.find(':') != manifestUrl.find('/') - 1:
-      url = urllib.parse.urljoin('gopher://' + manifestUrl, url)[9:]
+      url = urllib.parse.urljoin('gopher://' + manifestUrl, url)
+      url = re.sub(r'^gopher://', '', url)
     else:
       url = urllib.parse.urljoin(manifestUrl, url)
     return url