White screen of death on index.php page 3 and above?

I am experimenting with custom loops and following the tutorial of the illustrious Chip Bennett, and I actually got everything to work on index.php!

…

Up to, that is, page 3.

Everything works lovely when I go to page 2. On any higher page, it’s white screen of death time.

To my eye, my code is practically identical to the one provided in the link, but for completeness:

I have a sneaking suspicion it has to do with the max_num_pages? But I’m not sure at all. It’s a PHP error, but I have no idea how to ask the question more precisely. If someone has a good idea of where to look, I’d appreciate it.

TLDR localhost/blogname/ = fine
localhost/blogname/page/2 = fine
localhost/blogname/page/3 = total destruction

Probably not necessary, but here’s my full index.php: