Almost nobody believes traveling medicine man Mr. Sam'l is really a "water witch" who can detect water underground with his divining rod. The exception is a ruthless land grabber who has capitalized on a prolonged drought and all the known wells drying up. The land grabber, secretly, hired professional geologists to locate hidden springs on farmland that the owners are about to abandon and sell -- for a song -- to him. Realizing that Mr. Sam'l could find the water through blind luck if nothing else, and that even if he doesn't he will inspire Dodge City to renew digging before the land grabber can secure the property, the land grabber hires a gunman ...
—Peter Harris