Vardaman Gowrie

Vardaman Gowrie and his brother Bilbo are identical twins, "identical as two clothing store dummies" (159) or "two clothes pins on a line" (160). Intruder in the Dust treats them identically too. "About thirty, a head taller than their father," their faces are "surly quick-tempered and calm" (160), though they act together with energy in the search for their murdered brother's body. Like his brother, Vardaman is named after a noted Mississippi governor, but together they spend their nights hunting and "their days sleeping flat on the naked planks" of the front porch at home (162). (This Vardaman is one of the three Vardamans in the fictions, all named for Governor Vardaman; there are two characters named for Governor Bilbo.)