Fix underflow of `nbCompares` by switching to an `int` and comparing
`nbCompares > 0`. This is a minimal fix, because I don't want to change
the logic. These loops seem to be doing `nbCompares + 1` comparisons.
The bug was reported by Dan Carpenter and found by Smatch static
checker.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20211008063704.GA5370@kili/