The Kansas Pacific ran west to Denver. Between Denver and Cheyenne the Denver Pacific, 106 miles long, served as a connecting link between the larger systems. The Denver Pacific stock was held by the Kansas Pacific, and 29,979 shares of it were pledged in 1877 as part security for an issue of 10 per cent funding mortgage bonds.[471] The total earnings of the Denver Pacific from 1870 to 1879 had been $3,122,141; the expenses had been $1,709,477, and the net earnings from operation $1,412,664, or an average per annum of $141,266; while for the first eight years of that time the annual interest charge had been about $185,000. The only value of the Denver Pacific stock lay in the control which it secured over a connecting link between Denver and Cheyenne.[472] Under the conditions of competition existing between the Union Pacific, Kansas Pacific, and Denver Pacific, some sort of agreement or consolidation was both desirable and likely. The Kansas Pacific was entirely dependent on its competitor for access to western business, and this was soon perceived to be equivalent to continuous bankruptcy. Extension to Ogden would have removed the dependence; but this, while to be dreaded by the Union Pacific, was beyond the power of the Kansas Pacific for financial reasons, and no capitalist or group of capitalists before 1878 or 1879 seemed interested in the undertaking. On the other hand, rates were low, and the very success of its exclusive policy forced the Union Pacific to meet the competition of a road which, with no interest charges to pay, was able to cut all rates to the very verge of the cost of operation.