Two を in a single sentence - how to understand it?

Question

In the book I'm reading (「キッチン」 by 吉本{よしもと}ばなな) I have found the following sentence:

うしろで雄一がぞうきんを手に床をふいてくれていた。

I guess it can be translated to something like (sorry for a quite literal translation): "Behind (me) Yuuichi was wiping the floor with a cloth using his hands".

This sentence has two を. One of them (床をふいてくれていた) I understand as marking the direct object (floor) of the verb (wipe).

I cannot understand what the other を is doing there (ぞうきんを). What meaning does it have? What grammatical pattern is used in here?

Answer 1

You usually can't have two をs in one clause, so when you see one, most commonly one of the following is true:

1. It's part of a 〜を〜に（して） construction in which して is left out.

   AをBに　→　AをBに（して）

   You can recognize this one by the distinctive 〜を〜に pattern, often with a comma.

2. A repeated verb has been left out ("backward gapping"):

   XがAを、そしてYがBを買った　→　XがAを(買い)、そしてYがBを買った

   Unlike English, in Japanese the last verb is retained rather than the first.

3. The を links to a verb in a subordinate clause.

   Aを [ BをCして ] Dする

   If you see two をs in a row like this and they don't seem to suggest the same verb is coming up, it's usually a signal that the speaker has started a subordinate clause. Each を links to a different verb.

In this case, I suppose it's probably #1:

うしろで雄一が　ぞうきんを　手に(して）　床をふいてくれていた。

Yuuichi was wiping the floor with a cloth in his hand.