No doubt the most famous photograph in Canadian history is that of white-bearded, top-hatted Donald A. Smith driving the Last Spike into a tie on the Canadian Pacific Railway, surrounded by a crowd of similarly clad men with the completed railway track prominently in the foreground.

The photograph was taken almost exactly 125 years ago -- on Nov. 7, 1885 -- and has become the icon of Canadian unity. Sir John A. Macdonald had persuaded British Columbia to join Canada in 1871 on the strength of his promise to build the CPR to the Pacific Coast, and here, in Craigellachie, B.C., the eastern and western sections of the tracks had finally come together 14 years later.

One of the people in the photograph is a young boy named Edward Mallandaine. He's standing between Sir Sandford Fleming and the engineer Henry Cambie, craning his neck to get a view of the camera past Smith's top hat. In the official archives, Mallandaine is identified only as "teenager." How, one might ask, did a teenager come to be standing among the luminaries of the day, including William Cornelius Van Horne, contractor Michael Haney, surveyor Albert Bowman Rogers, and even the famous Sam Steele of the North-West Mounted Police?

That's the question that Kingston author Ray Argyle set out to answer in his young-adult novel The Boy in the Picture, published earlier this month by Dundurn Press.

Edward Mallandaine grew up to become Col. Mallandaine, the man who founded the town of Creston, B.C., which is Ray's hometown. "I knew Edward from when I was seven," Ray recalls. "I remember him coming around to collect rent from my father, as we rented a house from him for ten bucks a month."

I met Ray in Toronto through the Writers' Union, of which his wife, Deborah Windsor, was then executive director. The couple has recently moved to Kingston, following the lure that has made this city one of the top literary communities in the country.

Ray's writing credits are wide and varied, from Turning Points, a study of Canada's most controversial political campaigns, to Scott Joplin and the Age of Ragtime. He is an eminent social historian, having written for a range of magazines including Reader's Digest and the National Post. In fact, The Boy in the Picture began life as an article in The Beaver. He has also worked as an editor for the late, lamented Toronto Telegram.

Mallandaine was born in Victoria, B.C., in 1867, and at the age of 18 decided to join the Canadian militia and fight to put down the Riel Rebellion on the Prairies. It is his journey eastward for that purpose that Ray turns into a kind of picaresque epic.

Mallandaine travels by steamer to New Westminster, by boat up the Fraser River, boards another steamer to cross Kamloops and Shuswap Lakes, walks from Eagle Landing to Farwell (now Revelstoke), which was halfway between the eastern and western sections of the CPR. He joined a pack team heading to the eastern section coming through Rogers Pass, and eventually finds himself in Craigellachie on that photogenic day, having discovered that the Riel Rebellion had been put down.

Ray learned of Mallandaine's adventures directly from the horse's mouth. "Colonel Mallandaine loved to visit the schools and tell stories of his role at the Last Spike," he says in his home north of Barriefield.

But a lot of research has also gone into the writing of the book. Mallandaine's journey provides the backbone of the story, but the flesh is supplied by intriguing doses of history, including a summary of the Riel Rebellion, an account of the squabbles between the North-West Mounted Police and the B.C. provincial police, the importation of 6,000 Chinese labourers to work on the railway, and thumbnail sketches of each of the many towns through which Mallandaine passes.

In some cases, Ray's research was at odds with information provided by Mallandaine himself. For example, Mallandaine said he'd been born on July 1, 1867, which made him as much a Canadian icon as the famous photograph. But upon checking the official records, Ray discovered that the colonel was actually born a month earlier. "I have his army attestation paper," he says, "which he has signed confirming the June 1 date. Edward liked to embellish his stories, but I caught him out on this one!"

Mallandaine did not embellish his presence in Craigellachie 125 years ago, however: the photograph is proof of that. The colonel is definitely part of history. The book includes many sidebars giving further information about the historical events captured in the novel. One box tells of the disappointment of Farwell, for example, which was founded at the spot where Arthur Stanhope Farwell miscalculated that the railway would cross the Columbia River. Another gives the story of Dukesang Wong, whose journal is the only written record to survive of the ordeals suffered by Chinese railway workers.

"The book is intended for young readers," says Ray -- and in fact it has already become Number One on Amazon's list of books for children -- "but lots of adults seem to like, it, too."

This is partly because The Boy in the Picture provides a link between the present and the beginning of Canada's history, through Ray Argyle's connection with Edward Mallandaine. It is itself a testament to the continuation of Canadian unity which, despite recent pessimistic views, Ray feels is as strong as ever.

"I don't think Canadian unity is weakening," he says, "but it is changing to accommodate a more pronounced multicultural base. Canada has always been a multicultural country, and despite detractors, successful in that role. Edward chased his dream of adventure and mixed with cultures that were strange to a well-brought up British colonial boy. I hope his example will encourage young people to pursue their dreams and enrich their lives by mixing with all the other cultures that make up a Canada that is still as boisterous and confident as it was in 1885."