Thanks Frieder and Erik. I wrote my code as follows:

unsigned char b0 = 0xff;
unsigned char b1 = 0x07;
unsigned char b2 = 0xc1;
volatile char e;


void main()
{
unsigned long a = 0;  /* just to have something */
a+=b2;
a<<=8;
a+=b1;
a<<=8;
a+=b0;


   if (a < 0xcb49C6) 
      e++;
	  else
	  e--;
}