Losing a slash in an init file

Following a discussion earlier on the list, I tried to play with the contents
of an init file.

In /etc/init.d/spamass-milter, I edited the line to start the daemon by adding
"-i 192.168.123.0/24" to exclude mail on the local network:

daemon $prog -p $SOCKET -f -i 192.168.123.0/24  $EXTRA_FLAGS

BUT, when the line is executed, it seems the slash in the CDIR format is lost:

root      2957  0.0  0.1 13704 1068 pts/0    Sl   18:02   0:00 spamass-milter
-p /var/run/spamass.sock -f -i 192.168.123.0 24

On the other hand, if I remove the " -i ", the slash shows up.

Other slashes (e.g., the local socket file) appear correctly in the runtime
parameter list.

What am I doing wrong? 
-- 
  Steve